From the Dark Mirror
by Alexander-Crossover
Summary: Part 4 of the Teen Care Bears Saga. After their Wonderland adventure, the Care Bears mostly return to normal, but No-Heart has something planned, something that he is sure will destroy the Care Bears for good.
1. Gathering the Goods

**From the Dark Mirror**

Gathering the Goods

It has been two months since the Wonderland Adventure had taken place. For the most part things had been quiet in Care-a-Lot, of course that was a matter of opinion. Proud Heart and Loyal Heart were dealing with late night bottle feedings and diaper changes, which were always heralded by loud cries. During the day it was easy for them to find a babysitter, so they could get a few hours of sleep. The others had fallen into their normal patterns of Caring Missions, stare training, and of course teenage hoodlum.

One of their greatest enemies had been watching them for weeks now, biding his time to put his newest diabolical plan into action. He had waited for those who had gone to Wonderland to come home, allowed for a sense of peace and familiarity to overtake them, and looked for the moment when he new their guard was at the ultimate low. This was that moment.

No Heart, sorcerer of darkness, master of no feelings, conjurer of evil thoughts and menacing monsters, watched Care-A-Lot through his cauldron. "Beastly! Get in here!"

A small brown fur ball wearing a spiked aviator cap with goggles and a red scarf came running into the room, "Yes Lord No Heart? What can I do for you?"

He stood slumped over with his knuckles on the ground a bored look on his face. Picking up a clip board and a bag full of test tubes, No Heart paced in front of him, "I want you to pay a little visit to our dear friends in the Kingdom of Caring. From each of them I require a sample of DNA. Do not let them see you!" He yelled the last part, surprising Beastly and causing him to fall over.

"If they catch on to what you are doing my plan will be ruined. And to make sure you have gotten every piece of DNA I require, I made you this checklist." He tossed the clipboard at Beastly. On it was a list of every member of the Care Bear Family, along with a picture so Beastly wouldn't get them confused.

"Yes Lord No Heart, right away." He started to head out of the room, "Oh Beastly."

"Yeah boss?" Hs eyes glowed as he threw the bag of test tubes at him, "You forgot these fur brain!" The bag slammed into him knocking him out of the door with a yell. No Heart returned to his cauldron to watch, his laughter echoing around his castle in between booms of thunder and cracks of lightening.

"Beastly do this, Beastly do that, Beastly get this. You know it wouldn't kill him to get some fresh air once in awhile." Landing behind the Hall of Hearts he covered his heli-bike with a white fluffy blanket so it would blend in with the clouds.

"Now to find some of those cutsey wootsey Care Bears." Chuckling to him self he moved from cloud bank to cloud bank. Seeing Harmony walking down the path singing along to her iPod and not paying attention he figured she would be his first target. Dropping to his furry belly he grabbed a test tube and tweezers from his bag and snuck up behind the purple bear.

Grabbing some hairs off her leg, he quickly scurried off the path. Harmony didn't even notice and continued on her way, singing along loudly to her song.

"This is going to be like taking candy from a baby." Gong to pick up his bag, he got tangled in the straps and fell.

Getting up and muttering her heard raised voices coming from the direction of the houses. Always a sucker for a good conflict he went to investigate.

The shouting was coming from Grumpy, who was up on a ladder cleaning the gutters of a house decked out in green. Good Luck Bear was keeping the ladder steady yelling up at Grumpy.

"I just don't see why you aren't the one up here. You have the 'good luck.' I'm pretty sure my track record shows I do not." Grumpy shouted down to him.

"You know I don't like heights Grumpy Bear. Plus you owed me a favor from when I took over one of your shifts in the Hall of Hearts so you could take Swift Heart to that concert she wanted to go to." He re-settled his hands on the ladder.

Turning back to the gutters Grumpy continued to clean them out, dropping some of the gunk on the ground, not caring if it hit Good Luck or not.

Beastly chuckled, "Oh boy, oh boy." Using the moment of distraction he ran by Good Luck, grabbing some hair and putting it in a test tube. Feeling the wind and a slight pinch he spun quickly to see what was behind him. His elbow knocked into the ladder, causing him to curse in pain and grab it. The ladder swayed from side to side before falling to the right. Grumpy held on tight to the gutters as it fell to the ground. His bucket of gunk flew in the opposite direction, landing square on Beastly's head.

"Good Luck what the hell happened!"

"Something pinched me and I whacked my elbow!" He yelled going to retrieve the ladder.

Grumpy lost his grip however and with a yell landed on top of Good Luck. Beastly used the moment while they were still dazed and confused to grab some of Grumpy's hair.

Checking them off his list, he removed the bucket from his head, licking the gunk that fell into his mouth. "Yum! Better then mother used to make."

A shadow passed over his head. Looking up her saw Fauna circling in her Pegasus form before she landed on Good Lucks front lawn. Going over to the two fallen bears she nudged them with her nose, "Are you guys okay?"

Grumpy rolled off Good Luck, "Luckily." The green bear laughed at his pun.

Beastly was flipping through his list, but he didn't see Fauna on it anywhere. That gave him an idea. "Oh boy oh boy think how pleased No Heart will be when I bring him some hair from someone he didn't even put on the list!" As he thought about a way to get some of her DNA, one of Fauna's feathers floated down from the sky and landed on his nose. "uhhhhuhhhhhhUHHHHHCHOOO!" The sneeze sent him flying backwards into a cloud bank. Good Luck, Grumpy and Fauna all said "God bless you." Before continuing their discussion.

Waking up late for once Cozy Heart heard an odd humming noise coming from outside her house. Stretching her flippers above her head and yawning with a trill, she smiled seeing her breath fog in the air. Even though she lived in the Forest of Feelings which was always a warm temperature, she had erected herself a large multi room igloo out of white cinderblocks and made sure the temperature never rose above 40.

Slipping from her cool sheets she waddled to the door to investigate where the strange humming was coming from. Crawling through the short tunnel that led her to the outside, she felt her beak fall open at what lay beyond. The entire surrounding area around her house had been covered in snow drifts. Soft flurries still continued to fall around her as she took it all in, mouth agape. "Oh my goodnessss. It'sssss never sssssnowed in the Foresssst of Feelingssss before." Leaning down she lifted a flipper full of snow, a big grin lighting up her face.

"Glad you loike it Sheila. Been working on it all mornin." Jolly Heart came out from behind the igloo, a scarf around his neck and gloves on his hands. He had traded in his normal beach attire of open Hawaiian shirts and surfer shorts for a warm looking sweatshirt and snow pants.

"You did thissss? For me?"

He laughed, "Bloiyme don soun' so suproised love. Come roun back, OI 'ave a surprise that will explain it." He held out his hand for her to take. Slipping her flipper into his webbed paw she let Jolly pull her around the back of her house. There she saw the snow maker, also the source of the humming, as well as snow letters as tall as she was that spelled out, "Go Out With Me?"

"OI figured OI'd give ye something you love, an in exchange, you'd gimme something OI really want. You Cozy." Her flippers were clapped over her beak as she gazed wide eyed at the message before her.

"Jolly, I don't know what to ssssay. No one'sss ever done anything this nice for me." He gave a little shiver, folding his arms across his chest, "Yes would be noice eh."

Jumping at him with a giggle she flung her arms around his neck, "Of course yessss." He exhaled, instantly warming. "Oy that feels ace."

Before he got a hnce to hug her back, she pulled back slightly, "There'ssss only one thing that would make thissss perfect." She rubbed her beak against his bill before stooping down, grabbing a handful of snow and chucking it at him."

" 'ow did OI know." Laughing he began to form his own snowball. Unfortunately having been raised in Australia he didn't have much experience with the cold white stuff. Cozy Heart continued to pelt him with snowball after snowball as he struggled to form them. Eventually he warmed up enough to strip off his sweatshirt. Beastly who had rolled himself into a snow drift, plucked hair and a feather from Jolly and Cozy as they moved past him.

Shivering and sneezing with little snow-cicles hanging off his fur he quickly fled to a warmer part of the Forest of Feelings.

Defiant Heart Badger took a deep breath as he approached Valiant Heart in the gym. Valiant Heart was using the free weights and didn't notice the badger behind him until Defiant spoke up.

"Hey, Valiant Heart, can I talk to you?" Valiant turned and set the free weights he was using down before speaking.

"Sure, Defiant Heart, what's on your mind?" he asked.

"Remember the day we met, when you came back to the Kingdom of Caring and destroyed all of those snow monsters?" Defiant asked and Valiant nodded. "Well, I felt really useless that day, Swift Heart had to save me from those things and all I could do was run. I mean it feels like everyone in this family has something special about them and most of you can hold your own; even if you don't have spiritual powers a lot of you guys have qualities that will help you out in a battle, like Swift Heart's speed, Lotsa Heart's strength, and stuff like that ya know."

"OK, where are you going with this?" Valiant asked.

"I want you to train me, so that the next time something we can't handle with just our tummy symbols comes along I won't have to just cower and run," Defiant looked pleadingly at Valiant, who was looking thoughtful.

"Well I can't give you spiritual powers, doing that's a bit risky and Loyal and Snowy are just lucky their powers developed naturally rather than causing problems like mine originally did," he smiled at the now rather despondent badger, "but never fear I can train you to fight, I know a fair bit about a number of different weapons and fighting styles. You do come here to work out don't you?"

"Well a bit," Defiant admitted.

"That's not really important, yes working out can make you stronger but strength isn't everything. Love-a-Lot's busy today so let's go back to my house and get you started, choosing how you want to fight and such," Valiant said, turning to leave with Defiant Heart Badger on his tail.

"Thanks," Defiant Heart said, "I really appre-OW!" Defiant Heart felt a small but painful little prick from the back of his arm."

"What, is something wro-YOW!" Valiant had turned around and felt a small prick from his tail. He turned back to see nothing.

"Ugg, must be Playful Heart," he said, scowling, "I'll deal with the prankster later, let's get back to this," he said leading Defiant Heart back to his house.

In the nearby bushes, Beastly dropped the hairs he'd gathered from each of the cousins into their own test tubes before moving off to search for other members of the Care Bear Family.

Beastly checked the final box off on his list as he returned to his heli-bike. "No Heart is going to be so proud of me. I didn't mess up for once." Straddling his bike he peddled quickly for his Masters Castle.


	2. Pandamonium

Pandamonium

Valiant Heart was up early this morning, hoping to get a jump start on training Defiant Heart today. They had managed to settle on a weapon for Defiant Heart to use, a spear, specifically a long bladed one that could be used for slashing as well as lancing attacks as the badger had found a natural talent with the weapon. However, Valiant reflected as he brushed his teeth, there was one problem with this, how were they gong to get a spear for Defiant to use in actual combat situations. He couldn't create a useable one from his tummy symbol as it would be plastic and non-lethal, as none of the Care Bear Family could create lethal weapons from their symbols, and getting a spear on Earth that could actually be used in combat without breaking easily would be prohibitively expensive, if it were even possible.

Valiant was forced to spend a greater deal of time brushing his teeth today because last night Playful Heart and Funshine had put something in his food. He wasn't sure what exactly and quite frankly, he preferred not to know. After brushing his teeth for the fifth or sixth time (he had lost count) the nasty taste was finally gone from Valiant's mouth. He rinsed, swished and spit and looked up at the mirror only to be greeted not by his own face, but that of a human woman. Valiant blinked, rubbed his eyes, and blinked again before he recognized the visage.

"Mirana? What brings the White Queen of Wonderland to my mirror this morning?" he asked.

"Ah Valiant Heart, it's good to see you again," Mirana said, "I've been trying to call you and your friends to thank you for saving Wonderlands from Dementiva for some time now, but I've never been able to catch you when you weren't busy."

"Well you have me now," Valiant said, "So?"

"Well, I wanted to give you and your friends a gift, here," she held up an item that Valiant recognized as the golden pocket watch that Swift Heart had carried around when she had been the White Rabbit, "It is a timepiece and a weapon, it becomes a staff with bladed ends."

"Huh, I see," Valiant said, "As much as that would useful, I doubt that Swift Heart or Grumpy would appreciate that thing being in our world unless," the blue and silver Wolverine thought for a moment, "Maybe you could make something like that, or alter that watch, you see I have a friend, Defiant Heart Badger, who needs help getting a decent weapon…"

Defiant Heart Badger paced around the training area, Valiant Heart was late for the training session. Defiant Heart had learned a lot more than he expected over the past few days, even with just the crude symbol-spawned weapons from his symbol, but he still wished he had something he could actually use if needed..

"Hey, Defiant!" the badger turned to see Valiant Heart Wolverine dashing towards him, slowing as the distance closed, "thanks for waiting, here I got something for ya." Valiant produced a small object from his pocket and handed it to Defiant Heart. The badger looked down at what was in his hand, it was a small replica of his tummy symbol, a small golden shield with a red heart at the center.

"Uh thanks, Valiant, but what is this?" Defiant asked.

"It's your new weapons," Valiant said as if should be obvious.

"Okay," Defiant said, drawing out the word and sounding as if he thought Valiant was crazy.

Valiant sighed, "Press the heart on the front," he said stepping back. Defiant Heart wasn't sure what to think but did as Valiant requested. Almost as soon as Defiant pressed the small heart the shield replica of his tummy symbol sprang out into a long spear. The spear handle was entirely black in color and the blade, which was colored gold, was a long blade with two shorter blades immediately next to the main one facing parallel to the central point with a small heart shaped crystal in the center of the main blade where the three points were connected on both sides; there were a pair streamers, blue on one side and white on the other, attached the bottom.

"Where did you get this?" Defiant said as he tested the weapon, feeling that the spear was surprisingly light and well suited to him.

"Mirana, The White Queen of Wonderland sent it to me, a thank you gift to us for helping stop Dementiva, I was just the first one she was able to get a hold of when I had time to talk so I asked her for something you could use," Valiant explained. "You can carry it anywhere and it's been made so that only you can extend or collapse it and only if you want to, so it won't accidentally extend if you put it in your pocket; you can collapse it by pushing the crystal in the blade. The blade's not real gold, Fauna would have a fit if I gave a golden weapon to you, but it's durable enough and strong enough to last you probably your entire life." Valiant clapped his hands once then drew forth his sword, "Now, whaddya say we get back to your training?"

Good Luck was the one who first heard the Caring Meter going off today and he rushed over to check what was going on. Since the Star-o-Scope was unoccupied he peered through it trying to get a fix on where the signal was coming from.

"Wow, it's all white down there, nothing but snow as far as I can see," he commented, whistling.

"Snow?" the voice came from Snowy Heart who had also heard the alarm and had come to check on the trouble.

"Yeah, take a look buddy," Good Luck said, stepping aside to allow Snowy Heart to see for himself.

Swift Heart and Cozy Heart came trotting up, "What's all the fuss about? We were talking to Noble Heart when we heard the caring meter go off."

"Apparently there's someone who needs help but," Snowy tried to look harder through the star-a-scope, "but all I can see is snow." He stood back, to let the girls take a look, "guess that means I should go, cause of the whole arctic climate thing."

Cozy pushed Swift Heart out of the way to look through the scope. "It issss ssssnowing! I'm going too!"

Swift Heart scowled, rubbing her arm, "What the private snowscape Jolly made for you isn't enough?"

"It already melted."

Swift Heart rolled her eyes, "Looks like I'm in too."

"Then let's go!" Good Luck declared, conjuring a cloud car and getting in the driver's seat. Snowy got in the front seat while Cozy Heart and Swift Heart got into the back and Good Luck took off.

Swift Heart was looking over the side of the cloudmobile, thinking. "Who could even live in a place that cold an wet? Are we sure the caring meter didn't make a mistake?"

"It hasn't let us down yet," Good Luck said, "and don't worry, I'm here so we're bond to find what we're looking for." Snowy just rolled his eyes as Good Luck pushed the car into a descent.

She smirked at Good Luck, "Nice try but Grumpy told me about the gutter incident. Looks like you're not so lucky."

Cozy Heart clapped a flipper over her mouth, "Maybe you ssshould ssssave the jynxing for when we are ssssafely on the ground." The cold blast of air and snow that hit them forestalled any further conversation as Good Luck was forced to struggle to keep control of the Cloud Car while the others held on as if expecting to be torn from the car at any second.

"Good Luck land this thing!" Swift Heart yelled to be heard over the howling wind.

"Believe me, I'm trying!" Good Luck said, trying to push in for a landing, going lower and lower until they hit the ground with a sudden *whump* which caused the car to dissolve.

Snowy was a bit chilly but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle, in fact he felt a bit at home and he was the first to call out, "Everyone OK?"

Cozy Heart trilled happily, popping up from a snow bank, "I'm good!" Falling backwards she preceeded to make a snow angel. Swift Heart shook a snow pile from on top of her head, freeing her ears.

"Been better." Even though she had layered in a hoodie and long sleeve shirt, she still crossed her arms, shivering slightly.

Good Luck was in a similar state, he had been so excited that he hadn't bothered to put on more than the sweater he'd been wearing beforehand, so he was cold and now he was wet.

"I'll be fine," he said, pulling out his Caring Beeper and turning until it's beeping sped up, "and it looks like we need to go this way!" he said, pointing.

"Super. Let's hurry before we ffffffffreeze out here." Swift Heart started walking in the direction Good Luck pointed.

Cozy Shrugged over to Snowy, "Guess they can't appreciate a good blizzard."

Snowy smiled as they started following Swift Heart and Good Luck, "Well we can't blame them. They don't have insulated fur or feathers or fat to keep their heat in."

"Will you two arctic creatures hurry up, I can barely see you Snowy!" Good Luck called back to them. The penguin and the fox hurried to catch up to the other two.

"You know Good Luck you really sssshouldn't yell ssssso loud. Thosssse glacierssss are unstable." She pointed her flipper at the mountains around them.

"She's right you know," Snowy said, making an effort to keep his voice from getting too loud.

Swift Heart's eyes narrowed, feeling a tickle in her nose. "Ahhhhh...Ahhhhh...AHHHHH CHOO!" The force of her sneeze sent her flying backwards as the echo sounded around them. Snowy tensed up as he heard the telltale rumblings around him that indicated an avalanche was about to start. He rushed over to Swift Heart, helping her up.

"We need to outrun it!" he said, not bothering to keep his voice down now as he conjured a sled for them to ride down the slope. Cozy Heart started to push the sled, helping to get it moving. Getting a running start, Swift Heart jumped on the sled, using her inertia to help it start moving. As it slid away from her, Cozy Heart dropped to her belly and began to slide down the slope on her own. Good Luck managed to jump on the sled as it slid past him as they could hear the rumbling on their tails. Snowy gulped, concerned for the bear and the rabbit, he and Cozy Heart could probably dig their way free, but those two might not survive if they were buried.

Sparing a glance behind her, Swift Heart saw a wall of snow tumbling down towards them. "Must go faster!" Snowy did he best to paddle with his hands to speed up, but just ended up getting his hands covered in snow. No point in using his arrows here, they didn't generate enough force to speed them up.

As he felt the wall of ice and snow closing in on them, he called out, "Hang on!"

Cozy who had passed the sled saw her friends about to be swallowed by the snow. "Look out!" Good Luck chanced a look behind just as they were overtaken. Fortunately they had come far enough to avoid the biggest blast of the avalanche and it stopped a short time after covering them.

Snowy lay under the snow, catching his breath. He wasn't cold just a bit tired and he forced himself to dig upwards, thankfully hitting open air quickly. He stuck his head out and looked around for Cozy Heart or the others.

She was busy digging through the snow, "Swift Heart went under around here! I didn't see where Good Luck disappeared too." After a few more scoops, the top of Swift Hearts ears became visible.

Snowy forced himself to climb out of the snow, and managed to get over to Cozy Heart, "Here, let's get her out of there before she suffocates," he said, helping to dig around and expose more of Swift Heart, his paws being better suited to digging that Cozy Heart's flippers.

Breaking through the last bit of snow, Swift Heart inhaled deeply. "Ughhhh I'm wet!" She held a paw up to be helped out of the snow. "Where's Good Luck?"

"Don't know," Snowy said as he and Cozy Heart managed to pull Swift Heart free, "I can try to sense his location unless you have a better method." Snowy closed his eyes, trying to sense the presence of the green Care Bear.

Looking around, Swift Heart saw two white fuzzy things walking towards them. "What are those?" She pointed, ears standing straight up.

Cozy and Snowy looked but there was nothing there, "Ssswifty I think you hit your head in that crasssh."

"Things like this can frazzle someone's mind, I think Good Luck's over here," Snowy said, getting down and digging as fast as he could before finally uncovering a clover shaped tummy symbol. Desperately he dug up the bear's body and managed to expose Good Luck's head. The green bear was unconscious but thankfully he was breathing. Snowy Heart was tired from the digging and lay panting, trying to hold onto his breath. Even he had his limits for cold weather and the exertion hadn't helped.

Cozy began to pace, "Come on guysss we can't ssssit sssstill or we are going to freeze." The wind was becoming unbearable, pushing the snow against her like daggers. "We...can't...ssssit." She collapsed next to Swift Heart who's eyes were already closing. Cozy saw the edges of her vision going black, the last thing she saw were two white fuzzy shapes descending on her and her friends.

Snowy wandered through a hazy world, he was dreaming and in his dream he saw a vision of the man who had raised him, the elder of his village. The man spoke aloud to Snowy, just two words, "Wake up!"

Snowy shot awake, feeling surprisingly hot. He looked around noticing that he and his three friends were lying on beds built into a cave wall that surrounded them.

"Hey guys!" he called out, "get up, I think we're all right."

Good Luck sat up, "huh, hey looks like my luck held out!" he said enthusiastically.

A groan sounded from the bed next to him, "Good Luck...don't make me hurt you." Swift Heart buried her head deeper into the pillow she was laying on.

"Good to hear that you're all right," Snowy said, "Cozy, you awake?" he asked.

She sat up in her bed giggling, "Hard to sssleep with all the commotion." She quickly scanned the cave, "How did we get here?"

"Search me," Good Luck said, "everything went black after the avalanche hit."

"I think I remember ssseeing two creaturessss coming towardssss ussss." Grabbing her pillow she whacked Swift Heart with it, "Wakey wakey snow bunny."

Groaning Swift Heart slowly sat up. "Whaaaaaat?"

Snowy slid out of his bed, "Well whatever the case, we should look around, try to see if there's anyone here." He suddenly noticed how hot it was, "And more importantly, how it got so hot here when we were in a blizzard before."

Cozy got out of her bed and headed for a window. Looking through it she was they were in a lush tropical valley, with not a drop of snow anywhere. "I think I know why it'sss warm. You ssshould come sssee thisss Ssssnowy."

Snowy came up tot he window and peered out, "Whoa, now that's new," he said, "How could a tropical place like this exists amongst snow covered mountains."

"Perhaps we can clear up some of your confusion?"

"For the Valley you see is no illusion." They jumped in surprise at the voices behind them, and turned to see the fuzzy monsters that Swift Heart and Cozy Heart had spotted.

The rabbit grinned cockily, "Who's brain is playing tricks now Snowy."

Good Luck stepped forwards, doing his best to introduce himself, to whatever these things were, "Hi, I'm Good Luck Bear, who are you two, or what are you?" he asked, confused.

"Oh of course how silly of us." The one who spoke sounded male. Lifting his arm he pulled a zipper down on his front, showing the white fur was a suit of some type. The creature next to him was shedding in the same manner. Finally free of their outer layer, the Care Bears saw two Pandas standing before them.

"Well, it's nice to meet you," Snowy Heart said, "My name is Snowy Heart Fox, the penguin in Cozy Heart and the blue rabbit is named Swift Heart."

"My name is Perfect, and this is my sister Polite."

The she-panda next to him smiled at them, "Sorry if our snow gear gave you a fright."

"No worries," Good Luck said, taking Polite's hand, "We're just glad you saved us from the avalanche.

She blushed slightly, "Would you like to see our valley?"

"Of course, let's not dally!" Good Luck said, as he and Polite exited.

"Do you two always talk in rhyme?" Snowy asked.

Perfect smiled, "All the time. We aren't exactly sure why."

Polite called back, "But we can't seem to stop, no matter how hard we try." Swift Heart and Cozy exchanged a knowing look as they saw Good Luck and Polite walking out together before following them.

Snowy was about to speculate about why they were forced to speak that way, when Perfect pulled him out to look around. The valley was truly a tropical paradise, untouched by the winter world that surrounded it. Snowy was speechless.

"Hey this place could almost be home." Swift Heart exclaimed as she looked around.

"Yeah," Good Luck said, glancing over at Polite, whose hand he was still holding. He may have only known her for a few minutes but he liked her a lot.

"Maybe, but what about our mission?" Snowy asked, remembering the reason they came down here in the first place.

"Mission? What mission? Just who exactley are you?" Perfect questioned them.

Polite nodded in agreement, "What exactly is it that you do?"

"We are membersssss of the Care Bear Family. It'ssss our job to help people on earth who are having problemsss." Cozy had been so busy looking at the valley that she hadn't been paying attention to the conversation until then.

"I see, so you think someone in our Valley needs your help?"

"That's what our caring meter told us." Swift Heart told Perfect. "Are there other's here or is it just you and your sister?"

Polite and Perfect exchanged a look, "Well there is that village, but we don't know the people that well." She told the bunny cousin.

"Could you show us where it is, please?" Good Luck asked Polite.

Polite giggled, "If you want to know, just follow me through these trees," she said, leading them through a small patch of palm trees.

Swift Heart fell back aways to talk with Snowy. "How do you live in a place your whole life and not ever speak to the other people who live there?" She was getting a weird vibe off the twins.

"Don't ask me," Snowy replied shrugging, "but I can sense that those two are spiritually bonded, most twins are like that; they can feel how the other does if they're apart and in this case it seems strong enough to influence their speech pattern."

The village was a small affair, a couple dozen grass huts that were scattered around a large open space. In this space people were talking and children were playing. Polite stopped at the limits, pulling her hand from Good Luck's. "We will wait for you here."

Perfect joined her, "We don't want to get to near."

"Why not?" Good Luck asked, "you could help us find the ones who need our help."

"We're scared," Perfect admitted.

"So we've stayed at a distance and done nothing but stared," Polite added. Both panda's sat down, looking quite lonesome.

"I think I would go crazy if I only had one person to talk to my whole life." Swift Heart commented.

Cozy nodded in agreement, "It mussst get awful lonely." Realizing what the other said they cried out, "Wait!"

Swift Heart looked at the twins accusingly, "It was you! You're the ones who needed help."

"Well that settles it!" Good Luck clapped his hands together, "you two should come live with us."

"We thank you for the offer, but we don't want to impose," Perfect said.

"But we'll willing to try and see how it goes," Polite said, standing up and taking Good Luck's hand.

Swift Heart laughed, "Trust me you're not imposing. In fact it seems our last few Carng Missions have resulted in the new additions to the family. Maybe we should start charging for membership or something."

Cozy chuckled, "I'm sssure True Heart and Noble Heart would love that idea."

Snowy Heart rolled his eyes, "Well let's not wait around then," he conjured a cloud car.

Perfect held up his hand, "Can we make a stop back at our home?"

"There are a few belongings we need to get before we roam."

Cozy nodded and created a cloud mobile of her own, "We can put your sssstuff in here and you two can ride with Good Luck and Sssnowy. We all wouldn't have fit in one car anyway."

"All right!" Good Luck practically jumped for joy, "let's get packing then."

Less than an hour later the panda's had packed up their belongings in the cloud car and they were off to the Kingdom of Caring. Good Luck sat next to Polite in the back seat of the car while Snowy drove. Good Luck really liked Polite and the girl panda seemed to like him back.

None of them noticed the snow or cold winds that began blowing as they left.

Driving behind the cloudmobile, Swift Heart couldn't resist heckling them, "Good Luck and Polite sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

Good Luck just smiled and shot back, "Let her meet the rest of the family first." Polite just blushed and giggled.

"Whoa there pretty boy. Look at you with the game!" Swift Heart grinned at Cozy Heart, "I always liked that guy." It was then Care-A-Lot came into view and she angled the cloud mobile to land.

"Welcome to Care-a-Lot," Good Luck said gesturing around the place, "I'm sure you'll like it here, just wait until-" There was a whooshing noise and a strange spear landed point down in the clouds in front of the returning party.

"Not bad, Defiant, but keep a stronger grip on the handle," Valiant's voice called.

The badger dashed out from the nearby trees and grabbed the spear, "Don't go so rough on me then!" he called back.

"You do want to get better right?" Valiant said, emerging from the forest and sheathing his own sword. He noticed the group and waved, "Hey guys, who are the pandas?" the wolverine asked.

Swift Heart scowled at them, "More importantly why are you throwing spears at us?"

Cozy Heart interjected, "Thessse are Perfect and Polite Panda. We were called to the valley they were raisssed in becaussse they were lonely."

Defiant smiled and pressed the crystal in the spear blade to collapse it, "Well then welcome to the family," Defiant said, "you introduced them to everyone yet. Sorry bout the spear, Valiant's been training me to fight?"

"Why would you need to learn how to fight?" Polite asked.

"I thought that things up here were peaceful and right," Perfect sounded worried.

"They are," Snowy said, "but some of us would prefer to be prepared for anything."

"Yeah you never know when you may be sucked through a mirror and have your memory wiped. And no we haven't taken them to the Hall of Hearts yet, we were dropping their stuff off first." Clapping her hands, Swift Heart dissolved the cloud mobile so all the stuff dropped to the floor. "Piece of cake."

Perfect looked a bit shocked at what Swift Heart was said, but Valiant said he'd explain it to the panda later. Valiant and Defiant ended up carrying the panda's bags as they went to introduce them to the founders, then the rest of the Care Bear Family.

Swift Heart had separated from the group once they were dropped off at True Heart and Noble Heart. She had opted to tell the others to gather at the Hall of Hearts for the induction. "Attention all! Very important business at the Hall." Catching herself she groaned, "Crap now they have me rhyming."

The entire family turned out to greet the new arrivals, Noble Heart and True Heart actually seemed really enthusiastic about greeting these new family members.

"All right, everyone settle down!" True Heart said, beaming at the moment, running her hands over her swollen tummy.

"Yes because we'd like to tell you all something important!" Noble Heart said, happy but a bit exasperated.

"Is it that the baby isn't Noble Hearts?" Playful Heart called out. Swift Heart walked over to Grumpy and plopped herself down on his lap. The blue bear grunted but wrapped his arms around her.

"Who do you have your money on Playful?"

The two cousins paused thinking before deciding and announcing in unison, "Brave Heart!"

True Heart rolled her eyes, "No, Noble Heart is the father, but that's not it. You see, we actually know Perfect and Polite Panda. They were part of the family when we were first gathering all of your together."

"But one day they wandered away from us and when we tried to go after them, Dark Heart came after us and scared them away and we searched for them but could never find them," Noble Heart clapped Perfect on the shoulder, "but now you've found them and we're happy to be able to see them again."

He grinned at the horse founder, "Now that you mention it, your voice is familiar. I remember you from when I was small."

Polite clapped in excitement, "Yes! I remember being held while I cried after a rather nasty fall!" She hugged True Heart in her excitement in having remembered this.

There were cheers from the assembled family members, "I wish Fauna was here for this!" Funshine shouted over the din. Tenderheart and Brave Heart started arguing over where the pandas should live, Tenderheart argued that they were bears and should live in Care-a-Lot, but Brave Heart countered that they weren't normal bears but a different kind of animal and should live in the Forest of Feelings. Noble Heart settled the argument, letting the panda's decide where they would live.

"I think we'll live here in Care-A-Lot. The company seems most pleasant." Polite shot a grin to Good Luck who winked back.

"Indeed, that would seem best at present," Perfect said.

"Good," Tenderheart said, "We'll get you started on training as soon as you're settled."

"Welcome to de family frer!" Etienne gave them a toothy grin while getting up from his seat.

"Hope you enjoy yourself up here!" Guidance Heart said, putting her arm around Anger Heart and smiling at the new arrivals.

"I'm sure we will. You all have been so welcoming and kind." Polite told them as she rejoined Good Luck.

"Learning we had a larger family was a great find." Perfect agreed.

Cheer and Wish Bear came forward, "We can show you to one of the empty houses to stay in."

Wish nodded in agreement, "We built them after we had so many new additions just in case we found more."

Once the two pandas had gotten their possessions to their new house, Good Luck offered to show them around the Kingdom of Caring. Love-a-Lot, who had tagged along because Valiant had been carrying some of their bags, saw that Good Luck was smitten with Polite and offered to take Perfect on the tour. Valiant just rolled his eyes; his girlfriend was ever the matchmaker.

Friend and Secret Bear were re-painting the Caring Meter when the tour passed them. "Hi Pandas good to see you. I'm Friend Bear, and this is Secret Bear." The orange bear standing next to her waved.

"Yep, this is Polite Panda," Good Luck said.

Polite nodded, and blushed a bit when she felt Good Luck squeeze her hand, "Hello, how are you?" she asked.

"What is it that you all do?" Perfect asked Valiant.

Friend giggled, "Do you two always talk in rhyme?" she asked.

"Yep, they can't seem to stop," Love-a-Lot said, smiling.

"Our job is to help people around the world care and share their feelings," Valiant explained.

Love-a-Lot took Valiant and Perfect's hands, "Com'on, let's show Perfect around the Forest of Feelings!" she said, dragging them off and leaving Good Luck and Polite with Friend and Secret bear.

Secret pointed between Good Luck and Polite before imitating Love-a-Lot. Friend giggled at him, "I agree, that was one of her less subtle attempts at a set-up."

Good Luck smiled at Polite, "That's fine, I don't mind."

Polite giggled, "Aww, that's so kind."

"Good! Then you'll get adjusted quick beause I'm pretty sure Love-a-Lot made you her new hobby." Nodding in agreement Secret continued to paint the Caring meter. "So where are you going to take her next Good Luck?"

"I'm just going to show her around, want to join us?" Good Luck asked.

"Love to, but we need to finish this up." Friend once more picked up her paint brush.

"All right, we'll stop by later tonight," Polite said as they moved away.

The next day the Pandas gathered with Grumpy, Tender Heart and Good Luck at the training yard to learn how to use their tummy symbol. Both were extremely nervous, a fact that wasn't helped by Funshine and Swift Heart watching from the side lines.

Polite looked like she was about to faint but Good Luck propped her up from behind, "Don't worry I'll be here to help you, just aim your symbol at the target and fired away!"

Polite giggled and gave Good Luck a kiss on the cheek, "You're so smart, you teach so well, and your cute, I think you're swell," Good Luck stumbled away, mumbling nonsensically and blushing.

"Enough with the pda!" Grumpy growled stepping between the two, "We ned to get your training started."

Perfect nodded stepping forwards. He looked down the range, and fired off his stare, but like many before him the recoil hit him by surprise and he flew backwards, cannoning into his sister who fell back and accidentally released her own stare. Swift Heart and Funshine dove off the bench as the first stare flew at them. The next one hit Swift Heart in the rear causing her to leap in the air with a "Yooowwwlll!" Landing she dove behind a cloud bank for extra protection, Funshine scrambling to join her.

When the chaos had stopped, Tenderheart looked up, "Guess they need more training," he said.

"Don't worry," Good Luck said, "it took all of us time to learn to use our symbols properly."

Perfect looked down at the star wand on his sweater vest, "They're just so strong they're hard to control."

"We're trying our best but it really takes a toll," Polite added, sounding disappointed in herself.

"Don't worry," Good Luck said, "We'll be here to help you." Polite smiled and blushed. Good Luck glared at Grumpy but said nothing.

A few days later, the pandas were still having difficulty, even more than the others had had when they took up their training. After Tenderheart was forced to get a cast for his arm following a crash on a driving instruction, he called a meeting to discuss what they should do. Noble and True Heart decided to sit out for a couple reasons, but the one they explained was that they felt the younger generation should make this decision themselves.

In addition to Tenderheart and Brave Heart, the four who had first met the pandas were present: Swift Heart, Cozy Heart, Snowy Heart, and Good Luck. Tenderheart asked the first question, raising his unbroken right hand.

Swift Heart propped her feet on the table, "Do decide why the Panda's can't seem to get the hang of...well anything."

Cozy Heart nodded in agreement, "They do seem to be having a rough time of it."

Brave Heart massaged his arm; he'd been hit in the rear by a stare from perfect and knocked into a tree painfully. "Well, what should we do about this?" he asked.

"Why should we _do_ anything?" Snowy Heart asked, "Yes, the pandas are having trouble and remember, they were completely alone before we found them, even I and the others who were lost on earth at least had contact with humans."

"Snowy has a point," Good Luck added, "I mean, what's the point of drawing a line with them. I'm not just saying that because I like Polite, the pandas are as much Care Bears as any of us."

"Maybe that's what they need. Since they spent their whole lives with just each other, perhaps we should split them up so they can make other friends." Swift Heart offered in response to what Snowy said.

"That might work," Tenderheart said, "does anyone have any other suggestions?"

"Sounds good to me," Brave Heart said, "Swift Heart, Cozy Heart, you two are going to come with me, we'll spend time with Perfect while you two," he motioned to Good Luck and Snowy, "Spend time with Polite, and help her make friends," he added giving Good Luck a severe look.

Swift Heart saluted him, "Aye aye mon capitan."

Cozy Heart grinned, "I'm up for it."

"You can count on us!" Good Luck said, jumping up.

"I'll keep things in order, don't worry," Snowy Heart reassured Brave Heart, "I'll bring Share along, don't worry we'll keep our minds on the job."

"Pssssh. Sounds more like a double date to me." Swift Heart turned to Cozy and Brave Heart, "Let's show Perfect around the Forest of Feelings. We can see what the others are up too and he can get a chance to know them since they've spent most of their time here."

The five of them left, picking up Share Bear along the way, they found the pandas sitting in a driving simulator that Bright Heart had managed to set up for them.

"Hey Polite," Good Luck said, dashing to get to them first and taking her hand, "we're going out to meet some people." Good Luck pulled her along before either panda could speak.

"Perfect you're coming with ussss for an afternoon in the Foressst of Feelingsss." She slipped her flipper around his arm and pulled him a separate direction from his sister.

Brave Heart had conjured a separate cloud mobile, "All aboard!" Perfect and Cozy sat in the back. He managed one more look at Polite before the cloud mobile took off.

Polite blinked, not sure what to say, so Snowy spoke up, "There are a bunch of people here in Care-a-Lot you should meet," he said.

"I think you should meet Harmony Bear," Share said, "Com'on let's go!" she said, pulling Snowy along as the other two followed

"And over here is where Illusion Heart lives. He's an excellent cook and is always happy to make food for everyone." Brave Heart indicated the green covered cabin to Perfect.

A yell came from inside, "Petite I said drop de steak, now!" The front door opened and a grey wolf came running out with a raw steak in her teeth. Etienne was close behind and he tackled her, trying to wrestle the meat from her mouth. She growled in response. "Non chere, dat isn't fo' you! Le' go." The two started a tug o' war over the steak, unaware of their audience.

Perfect looked to Swift Heart, "Should we help Illusion get his steak back?"

"Nah he's okay. But come to think of it, I don't think you've met the grey furry menace there yet have you?" He shook his head. With a final tug the steak tore in half, sending the two flying backwards. Looking pleased with herself the wolf ate up her half. Illusion got to his feet muttering a series of inaudible words in french.

Seeing the others he walked over to them, "Bonjour Perfect. Nahce to see you. Pardon my language but dat lil' tief jus ruined mah dinner."

Brave Heart clapped him on the shoulder, "Are you really that surprised?"

The alligator laughed, "Non. I got twa mo' in de fridge."

The wolf came over to the group. "Perfect, meet another estranged member of the family, Fauna."

"So you're the newest member of the family?" Fauna questioned him. "I thought there were two of you?"

Pefect nodded, "There are. My sister, Polite, is still in Care-A-Lot. Brave Heart told me they think we need some time away from each other."

Fauna grinned baring her teeth and slightly unnerving Perfect. "I'm sure I'll see her on one of my visits."

"Fauna livessss elssssewhere now but ssshe ussssed to live here with usss." Cozy Heart told Perfect in response to his confused look.

Swift Heart whispered to Brave Heart, "Did you notice he's not rhyming anymore?"

"You're right! Way to go Swifty!" He slapped her hard on the back. "Ow!"

When Snowy opened the door to Harmony's house they all heard two female voices singing a duet. Entering they found Harmony and Guidance Heart singing with Anger Heart there, watching for moral support.

Unaware of their audience they kept singing until Polite spoke up, "That was beautiful, you two are very good singers." Guidance turned around, blushing and mumbled a thank you. Others were mostly surprised that Polite had spoken without rhyming.

"Hello Polite," Harmony said, "I see you caught us during one of Guidance Heart's singing lessons.

"We've been practicing," Guidance Heart mumbled as Anger Heart came to take her hand.

"I was singing earlier too, not as good as these two here," he kissed Guidance on the cheek.

"Thanks," she said.

"It's nice to meet all of you," Polite said, "I really haven't had much of a chance to socialize with all my training."

Harmony snickered, "I'm surprised you aren't rhyming, I was told that you and your brother always spoke in rhyme."

"I'm not?" Polite was surprised by this fact.

"Maybe that's because you aren't in close proximity to your brother," Snowy guessed.

"Maybe," Polite said, "So who else should I meet?" she asked.

"Com'on, I'll take you to meet Funshine and Playful Heart," Good Luck said, leading Polite out of Harmony's house, "Just be careful, they might jump you and hit you with pies in the face."

"I'll try to be careful," Polite said.

Leaving Fauna and Illusion they continued on their tour, running into Lotsa Heart and Treat Heart. They then paid a visit to Loyal Heart and Proud Heart to see how baby Trust Heart was doing. As the afternoon wore on Perfect found himself relaxing and enjoying his family's company, but he was still happy when the time came to take him back to Polite.

Needless to say, Polite was pranked by Funshine and Playful, but she didn't mind too much. She was happy to re-unite with Perfect but even then they didn't resume their rhyming, surprising as it was to the others.

The two pandas seemed to be making some progress but sadly, the last straw came that night. Bedtime Bear was forced to wake the entire family up for an emergency. Both Pandas ended up tripping over each other on the way to the cloud cars that were being conjured and by the time they stood up, everyone was gone.

"Oh Perfect it's just no use. Nothing we ever do is right."

Perfect put his hand on Polite's shoulder, "We've tried so hard, but I think we just don't belong here."

"Should we return to our valley then? I don't feel right leaving without warning," Polite asked.

Perfect shook his head, "No, let's get some sleep." He put his arm over his sister's shoulder, "We'll tell them in the morning."

The next morning True Heart and Noble Heart noticed the Pandas were very quiet at breakfast. "Perfect, Polite, are you two okay?" Noble Heart asked them.

Perfect sighed, "No, we're not, actually we have an announcement to make."

"We're returning to the valley," Polite said, "we just can't handle life up here." Despite the breakfast commotion, silence suddenly fell. Those near the pandas had heard what Polite said and spread the word quickly.

"But it's only been a few days. Are you sure you don't want to give it a little more time?" True Heart asked them.

Perfect shook his head, "We've been trying so hard, but this life just isn't for us, there's too much we need."

"We miss our valley and the life we used to lead," Polite added.

Good Luck turned to Polite whom he was sitting next to, "Polite, I don't want you to go."

"I'm sorry," she kissed him, "but this is just how it has to be."

"I'll go with those two, and Good Luck," Snowy added, "and I think Swift Heart and Cozy should come too. We found them we should return them home."

Swift Heart groaned, "Back to the cold? Plus how do you know I didn't have other plans today."

Good Luck looked over at Swift Heart, "Well did you have plans today? I think we should all go to see them home."

"Grumpy can some too if you want," Snowy suggested.

She looked to Grumpy who rolled his eyes and shrugged. "No that's okay, we'll move our plans to later."

"Thank you," Snowy said, "So would you two like to return now?" he asked the pandas.

"The sooner the better if you please." Perfect told him, trying not to make eye contact with those around him.

"All right," Good Luck said, standing up with Polite. The six of them went outside and created a pair of cloud cars, first going to gather the belongings that the pandas wanted to take home with them plus a few keepsakes they wanted to bring with them.

Snowy, Swift Heart, Cozy Heart, and Perfect rode down in one cloud mobile, giving Good Luck and Polite privacy on the way. "Ssso Perfect are you absssolutley sssure you two don't want to ssstay? We sssure are going to misss you." Cozy told him.

"I'm sorry Cozy Heart," Perfect said, "but we just don't feel at home anywhere but the valley."

"We understand," Snowy Heart said, placing his hand on Perfect's shoulder.

"Yeah, Fauna felt the same way. That's why she left too." Swift Heart told Perfect.

In the other cloud mobile, Polite was resting her head on Good Lucks shoulder, "Do you hate me for going back to the Valley?"

"I could never hate you," Good Luck said, "but I will miss you, he kissed her as they descended into the snow, but managed to maintain control, "Shouldn't be getting close to the valley by now?"

Polite looked over the side of the cloud mobile, trying to get her bearings. That's when she noticed the ice covered palm tree and the frozen river, "Oh no!" She turned around in her seat and yelled at her brother, "Perfect somethings wrong with the Valley!"

He put his hand on Swift Hearts shoulder, "I need to land. Do not dally."

"Not dallying is my middle name." She dove the cloud mobile down to the ground.

They landed in the middle of the huts, which were all snowed in and nearly covered.

Perfect took Polite's hand, "We have to warn the villagers, we've goen without talking them for too long."

Polite nodded, "Yes, we need to protect them." The other four started to talk about what might be going on as the pandas entered a hut to find a family of parents with two young children, they looked at the pandas.

"Who are you?" the older man asked.

"You don't know us but we know you all," Perfect said.

"We've watched you grow since you were small," Polite continued.

"We've come to warn you, you need to run before you freeze in here!" Perfect said.

"But where, there's snow everywhere and no shelter?" the man asked. The Pandas exited, shivering and feeling helpless.

Swift Heart was shivering, arms crossed over her chest. "Look, short of making a giant bonfire in the center of the huts I don't know what we can do. I do know I'm not going to last long out here."

Cozy Heart stared a knit cap out of her tummy symbol and shoved it over Swift Hearts ears. Turning to Snowy she asked, "What do you think?"

Snowy thought, "When we last came here, I sensed a lot of energy here, the same kind we produce when we use our tummy symbols."

"Then it's simple, let's stare the snow away!" Good Luck said, he took Polite's hand, "you two should help too."

"But we haven't mastered our symbols yet, what is something happens," she asked, worried.

"We have to try," Perfect said, sounding determined.

They formed a line facing one of the more snowy parts of the town. "5..4..3..2..1 Stare!" Following Good Lucks countdown they began to stare the snow. At first it seemed like the Pandas were in control, and the snow was starting to melt.

"Keep it up," Snowy said, straining. But then the pandas lost control, stubling around, their stares firing wildly.

"Perfect Polite!" Good Luck cried in dismay.

"I'm sorry but we can't use our stares for long!" Polite said, panicked.

"Every time we use them, something goes wrong!" Perfect said before the two collapsed, out of energy.

It wasn't long before the cold and using her stare for so long drove Swift Heart to her knees, shivering. Good Luck to was forced to quit from the cold. Cozy Heart and Snowy followed shortly after, losing their energy. "There'ssss too much sssnow." Cozy panted from her place on the ground. Perfect and Polite looked around at their frozen paradise. The beautiful valley they had grown up in was in danger of being frozen forever, all because they hadn't been there to protect it.

"Perfect what are we going to do? The valley is dying and there's nothing we can do to stop the snow." Perfect nodded, tears forming in his eyes.

"I don't know what else to try Polite. We've done all we can and have nothing to show." His tears fell from his eyes. Polite began to cry as well, mourning the loss of her home. Slowly the Pandas tummy symbols produced replicas of themselves that began to glow and float away over the valley. When they passed over an area, the snow began to melt away.

Snowy sat up, "So that's what I sensed, it's the panda's love that keep the valley alive."

"So that means, they have to stay here," Good Luck said, he didn't sound said, but rather sounded like he was thinking. Perfect and Polite stood by, looking sheepish as the villagers slowly emerged and cheered upon seeing the pandas.

"Thank you so much for saving us! If it weren't for you we'd all be frozen solid." The man from before shook Perfects hand.

"You're welcome." A smile slowly spread over his face. Swift Heart and Cozy walked up to Polite.

"Looks like this is ta ta for now." She hugged the panda before passing her onto Cozy Heart.

Each of them exchanged hugs and Swift Heart conjured a cloud car for them to go. When they got in they noticed Good Luck was still standing nearby.

Snowy looked over at the bear and said, "Good Luck, we have to go now."

Good Luck looked over at Perfect, Polite, and the villagers, then back to the three in the car and said, "I'm not going."

Swift Heart hopped out of the cloud mobile, hands in the air. Stopping next to Good Luck she moved her arms like an umpire saying safe, "I'm sorry...what!"

Good Luck looked over at Polite again and smiled, "I'm staying here," he said, "I'm in love and honestly, after seeing how things are down here, I'd like to stay and live here."

"Are you sure," Snowy Heart said, "you realize that this wouldn't just be a vacation."

Cozy's eyes were wide, "But Good Luck...what about everyone elssse? Aren't you going to misss usss?"

Swift Heart nodded, "Yeah we grew up together. It's going to be so weird there without you."

Good Luck hugged all three of his friends, "I know, and I'll miss you all, but, you all have someone special waiting at home for you and I," he looked back at the pandas, I've found someone special here. I hope you all understand."

"I guess I do," Snowy said, "What about your possessions?"

"I'll be fine, there's not much up there I could either use down here or get again," Good Luck pulled his shirt off, as he was sweating quite a bit from the heat.

Swift Heart wiped suddenly misty eyes. "We'll come visit. Be careful okay?" kissing his cheek she moved away.

Good Luck wiped the tears from his eyes, "Thanks you guys, I'm gonna miss you, give everyone my best." Snowy sighed, wiping his eyes and got in the car as they flew off. Good Luck sighed then dashed over to Polite and hugged her tightly.

"Good Luck!" she was surprised, "what are you doing?"

"I'm staying," he said, smiling, but crying a bit, "I love you, Polite, and I know you have to stay here, so I'm staying too. I never want to leave you."

Polite kissed him, "thank you, and I love you too," she took his hand, "Let me show you your new home." She led him off to meet the villagers.

Landing in Care-a-Lot the three of them just sat in the cloudmobile for a moment, collecting their thoughts. "I guessss we ssshould tell the othersss." Cozy Heart offered.

Snowy Heart Fox nodded, "We should, Noble Heart and True Heart will feel strongly about this, and I don't know," he chuckled, "Tenderheart's gonna have a fit about the whole procedures things."

Swift Heart laughed, "Forget the fit. I'm pretty sure his head is going to explode. Cause now he has to find someone to take over Good Lucks shifts."

The three of them laughed briefly before they stopped and finally got out to tell the rest of the family about Good Luck's decision. As expected Tenderheart raved about how Good Luck wasn't thinking about what his departure would cause, but he was ultimately silenced by everyone else, most of them crying and commenting on how they'd miss the optimistic green bear.

Meeting up with Grumpy after the news was broken, Swift Heart hoped to salvage their afternoon. Walking paw in paw they headed for Grumpy's house. The blue bear had a smile on his face even though he had just heard about his friend leaving. "Why are you smiling?" She was intrigued every time he showed any positive emotion.

"Cause I understand why Good Luck left."

She raised her brow at him, "You do?"

"Yeah. I know that if you ever left, I'd follow you." He spun her in front of him, enveloping her in his arms.

"I couldn't bear to be away from you." Grinning she stood on her tiptoes sharing a soft kiss.

"Well when you put it that way..." He kissed her again, holding her tightly. "So you still up for our dinner date?" he asked her.

"Yup. Let's get cooking." They continued on to Grumpy's house, feeling much better about Good Lucks decision, and knowing if they had been in his shoes they would have done the same.


	3. Tattoos

Tattoos

No-Heart observed the fruits of his labors, the reason he'd had Beastly steal DNA. Though he would never say so he was pleased that Beastly had brought him Fauna's DNA and held a particular regard for three of his creations. They were clones of the CBF, but not just clones, opposites; opposite in almost every way, mainly in their attitude, making them evil, gender, and in some cases, abilities. The three that were clones of Valiant Heart, Snowy Heart, and Loyal Heart also had some strange powers of their own, but nothing he was aware of, and of course, Fauna's opposite could shape shift. It was doing do as it was finishing its growth, shifting in various chimeric states as it wasn't fully aware of itself.

"With these," he said, "and their special talents, I will finally be rid of the Care Bears!"

Champ, Valiant, Brave Heart, and Grumpy were working out in Care-A-Lot's weight room, unaware of the danger No Heart had in store for them. Finishing his set, Champ put his weights down and wiped his forehead. The sweat band around his head slid a little. "So Valiant Heart, what are your plans for today?"

Valiant Heart smiled, "Actually I'm glad you asked, I was thinking about going down to earth and getting a tattoo."

"A tattoo?" Brave Heart asked, surprised.

"Yeah, you know one of those pictures they graft onto your skin, like our tummy symbols," Valiant said.

"Ha...ha...look who has a sense of humor." Grumpy commented from his place on the treadmill. "He knows what it is; he's just confused as to why you want one."

"I want one because, well, I think it would be cool," Valiant admitted, "What other reason would I need, it's the same reason Swift Heart got her belly button pierced."

Brave Heart laughed, "You want to get a tattoo to tease and flirt with Grumpy?" Scowling Grumpy threw his water bottle at Brave Heart.

"Harharhar," Champ said, "He wants to get one for fun, Brave Heart. You know, I think I might join you on that," he said, "it sounds cool."

"Join me if you want," Valiant said, "the more the merrier."

"I guess I'll come too. Just to watch though. I want to see the look on your guys faces when you see that needle." Grumpy told them.

Illusion Heart came walking in, about to start his work out. "Wuz dis I hear 'bout needles?"

"We're going to get tattoos. It was Valiant's idea. Want to come?"

He thought for a moment before answering Brave Heart. "Oui. I tink I will."

"Cool," Valiant said, "I think we should go around and see if anyone else wants too, but keep Noble and True Heart out of the loop, I don't need a lecture from them, or Tenderheart."

"Gotchya," Champ said.

Grumpy went home to take a quick shower before going down to watch the guys get their tattoos. On his way back to the meeting point, he stopped by the Hall of Hearts. Swift Heart was in there on caring mission duty. Currently she was writing up the report from a mission she had just completed. As always her ears picked up on Grumpy walking towards her.

"Hey Grumpy. What's up?" She tilted her head up for a quick kiss before he sat down.

"Some of the guys are going down to earth to get tattoo's and I'm supposed to be asking the others if they want to go. Want to go?"

She smirked as she wrote, "Tattoo's huh? No thanks I'm good. What are you going to get?"

He fiddled with one of her spare pens, "Nothing. I'm just going to watch."

"Really? You're not even going to get a little one?"

He crossed his arms, "Nope."

He was quiet for a moment as he watched Swift Heart write, "You don't want me to get one, do you?"

She stacked her papers, tapping them on the desk. "Oh I don't care either way." She went to the filing cabinet to put her papers away, "But you know what my piercings do for you, so could you imagine what a tattoo could do for me? Especially if it was in a less conspicuous place, just like my belly button ring. You know how when we're making out and you like to-"

She heard his chair scrape back as he bolted for the door. Smiling she closed the cabinet draw with her hip, "Like a puppet on a string."

Champ managed to get Birthday Bear interested. As for Cozy Heart, she said she'd been joking a few months ago when the girls got their piercings. Love-a-Lot decided to some along to see what Valiant would be getting, but didn't want a tattoo herself.

Conjuring a couple of cloud mobiles the gang headed down to earth, chattering excitedly about what they were planning on getting. "Mine's going to be a tribute to Cheer. I'm thinking a heart with her name in it right here." Champ pointed to his left bicep.

"Very original," Birthday Bear said trying to contain his laughter.

Valiant just rolled his eyes, "Not sure what I want, but I'll look at what they have down there when we get there."

"What about the rest of you?" Love-a-Lot asked, curious.

Etienne grinned, "Mines gonna be a tribute to my heritage anmy new name."

Grumpy shrugged, "No idea."

Brave Heart stood up, "Mine is going to be a symbol of my awesomeness!"

Birthday thought, "Honestly, I'm not sure, probably something simple."

Landing outside the tattoo parlor the others followed Valiant inside. The walls were decorated in pictures to help give potential clients ideas and in the back were curtained off sections where the tattooing took place. A girl with pink hair and quite a few tatt's herself was waiting behind the front desk. "Hey welcome to Ink Well can I..." she paused looking up at the Care Bears, "...help you?"

"What do you think we're here for?" Valiant asked sarcastically, "We're getting tattoos, mind if we look around first?" he asked.

Etienne walked up to the girl at the counter; she tensed up at the sight of him. "Pardon mon ami's manners chere, he don talk to femmes as belle as yoself on a regular basis."

The others watched her melt before their eyes, "It's no biggy. I've seen worse then him. So, you getting inked too?"

"Oui." He leaned on the counter to speak with her. Everyone else other than Champ looked around for Tattoo ideas, Champ knew what he wanted to he asked directly for his tattoo. Valiant looked around, searching for an idea that piqued his interest. Love-a-Lot made suggestions but Valiant was still indecisive, he knew he wanted one, but not what it should be.

Grumpy too was looking around. He had absolutely no idea what he wanted, having given it no previous thought. He moved over to Valiant, "Any ideas yet? I think I saw Brave Heart looking at a superman crest but with a B instead of an S."

"Oh man, I hope he doesn't get it on his chest, and then he runs around without a shirt," Love-a-Lot said, grimacing.

"Not sure, I'm thinking about getting a Japanese character or something on my back," Valiant said. He smirked at Grumpy, "Let me guess, Swift Heart talked you into this?"

"Right," Love-a-Lot rolled her eyes, and then whispered something in Valiant's ear, he smiled.

"Sure, that sounds good, see ya later, Grumpy, hope you can think of something, cause we're not leaving till you get one."

"Well yippy skippy for me." Rolling his eyes he moved on along the wall. Birthday went in with Etienne to watch him get his done. He was going to get 3 fleur de lis, one purple, one yellow, and the third a lighter green then his skin; they were going to be connected by a green, yellow, and purple mardi gras bead necklace. In the center of it was going to be a black Mardi gras mask, in connection to his new name of Illusion Heart.

The tattooer got his first needle ready, "All right tell me how the pain is." He lowered the needle to the inside of Etienne's left forearm. He winced slightly but told the guy it was fine. The humming of the machine and size of the needle caused Birthday to feel queasy.

"IIIII think I'm going to sit this one out." Paling he fled the room.

The artist shook his head, "It isn't for everyone."

Illusion winced again, "Dat fo' sure homme."

Champ and Brave Heart watched Birthday Bear dashing out of the room and heading for the bathroom, "Wonder what's wrong with him?" Brave Heart asked.

"Not sure," Champ said, "Maybe he's chickening out."

Quite some time Later, Illusion Heart walked out with a large area bandage on his arm and the tattooer called the next one in.

"That's me, see yah shortly," Champ said, heading to get his tattoo.

"So Brave Heart, you decide wha' you getting?"

He grinned at the alligator, "I'm getting a BH in a superman symbol with a crown on top." He could do no more than laugh at the leader of the Cousins.

"Uhh huh," was all Valiant could say.

Love-a-Lot decided to have some fun, "Hey, Etienne, what was getting your tattoo like?"

Illusion picked up on her plan, "It was de single mos' excrutiatin thing I have evah done. An I've gotten habanera juice in mon eye." He rubbed his arm weakly over the bandage while glancing at Brave Heart.

Brave Heart started to look queasy, "It couldn't have been that bad, could it?" he asked.

"Imagine a tousand bee stings embedding in yo skin ovah an ovah again mon ami. Dat feels bettah den dis."

"Umm, that's umm, I need to get something bye!" Brave Heart ran out of the store, "Charge, backwards!" Love-a-Lot, Valiant Heart and Illusion were in fits of laughter

"Oh man, that was classic!" Valiant said.

"Well I couldn't let 'Brave Heart the Magnificent' get a superman tattoo on his back and walk around shirtless anywhere," Love-a-Lot said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.

Finally reaching a decision Grumpy sat next to Valiant Heart. "Are you happy? I decided what I'm getting."

"Cool, can't wait to see it, I decided too," Valiant said, "I'm getting Love-a-Lot's name in Japanese characters down my back."

"Nice. I'm getting an old school hammer surrounded by lightning right here." He pointed to his left pectoral.

Love-a-Lot grinned, "Wonder what Swift will think of that?" she asked. Fortunately at that moment, because his tattoo was simpler, Champ arrived and Valiant pulled Love-a-Lot in to watch him before she could embarrass Grumpy Bear further.

"Dey sure love to poke at dat particular soft spot don dey Grumpy?" He scowled at Illusion.

"Yeah. It's because I'm 'Grumpy' Bear and they find it amusing I actually experience 'happy' emotions." He air quoted where appropriate.

Champ slapped his shoulder, "I'm sure we'll get tired of it eventually sports fan. Definitely by your honeymoon." Illusion and Champ laughed as he paled.

Valiant winced as he was lying face down with his back exposed, Love-a-Lot giggled as seeing him without his shirt as the tattoo artist carefully applied the characters to his back.

"Ouch! careful!"

"Just hold still, this isn't' as painful as it would be anywhere else, your back isn't as sensitive.

"Well I won't tell Grumpy that," Love-a-Lot said.

When Valiant came out of the back room, Grumpy took a deep breath. Soon the artist called him back, "Last victim."

"That's encouraging." Sitting in the chair he shrugged out of his open button up shirt and took off his white wife beater. Telling the tattooer what he wanted and where he sat back in the chair, gripping the arm rests.

About to get started, he stopped him, coming up with another detail, "Hey could you add a small shoe with wings coming off the handle?"

"Whatever you want dude." Grumpy bit the inside of his cheek as he felt the needle prick his skin.

When Grumpy finally exited, the others congratulated him on going through with it, "Can't wait till we can get these bandages off," Valiant said, doing his best to avoid scratching, "Let's get the two who wussed out and go home."

The next day Grumpy heard the knock on his door and smiled. He had taken off his bandage that morning and had called Swift Heart over to see his new tattoo.

Opening the door he smiled down to her, "Hey. Come on in." She followed him inside, going to sit cross legged on the couch.

"Okay let's see it." Standing in front of her he stripped off his t-shirt, "Ooooo I'm liking it already." Looking to his chest she saw the hammer wrapped in lightning. "Grumpy that is the sickest thing I have ever seen! Come sit here and lemme get a good look at it."

"Check out the last minute detail at the bottom of the handle."

Looking she saw the shoe with wings, "Was that for me?"

He nodded, "Yup." She gently ran her hands over the tattoo, feeling him shudder beneath her.

"Is it still tender?"

"A little. The guy said it would take a while to heal."

She planted a feather light kiss on it, "I can't wait till its all better."

That touch sent a warm tingle up his spine, "I'm very glad you talked me into it." Kissing her he slowly laid her back on the couch, moving to straddle her.

Champ had called Cheer over to the gym to show off his tattoo, he was working out without a shirt on and grinned turned around to show her.

"Champ, is that for me?" she asked, seeing the heart with the words "Cheer Bear" written inside in gold letter.

"Yep, you like it?" he asked, grinning.

She walked over and kissed him, "What do you think?"

Champ grinned and scooped her up, "Want to go back to my house and talk about it?"

Cheer giggled and put her arms around his neck, "Sure, why not?"

Jolly was leaving his house to head to Care a Lot when he saw Etienne sunbathing on the banks of the Rainbow River. His arms were stretched up over his head and on the inside of one Jolly saw a design.

"Croikey bloke, did ya git a tattoo?"

Illusion opened sleepy eyes, "Oui. Me an a few of de others wen' down yesterday."

"Noice!"

"You tinkin bout gettin one too homme?"

"It's crossed moi moind once er twoice. My mates back 'ome all 'ave one. Maybe next toime ey?"

Etienne closed his eyes once more, "Well lemme know frer an I'll go wid you."

Valiant was letting Love-a-Lot take the bandage off his back, he winced as she peeled it off.

"There, that's better," she said, throwing the bandage in the trash, "how do you feel."

"Better," Valiant said, looking behind him at Love-a-Lot, "How does it look?"

"Good," Love-a-Lot snickered, "wish I could read it."

"Well that's your name, I asked to make sure," Valiant said, sitting up.

"That's sweet of you," she kissed his cheek, "Want to go and show it off."

"Sure, I want to show Brave Heart what he skipped cause he was scared," Valiant said, smirking.

Later that night at dinner, when everyone had been gathered in one place, Tender Heart was next to Champ in the line for food and saw his tattoo. "Whoa whoa whoa, where did that come from?" He pointed accusingly at the tattoo.

"You like it, I got it yesterday, Valiant, Grumpy, and Illusion Heart all got one too," Champ explained, not really seeming to notice Tenderheart's irritation.

"They did what!" Turning to True Heart and Noble Heart he asked, "Did you hear that? They got tattoos! Without your permission!" True Heart wasn't sure how to react, normally she would have sided with Tenderheart but at the moment she wasn't sure. Noble Heart stepped in.

"Champ, as interesting as that idea is, you should have at least told us before you did that," he said, not sounding angry, but a bit cautionary.

"No worries Noble Heart, we know all the risks and we went to a respectable place. The guy used sterile new needles for each of us and never double dipped into the ink wells. He also gave us each papers on how to care for them and when to get medical attention if something looks suspicious."

Grumpy backed him up, "We aren't cubs anymore and are more then capable of making our own decisions."

"They're right you know, Tenderheart," True Heart said, "you aren't cubs anymore that's why we're letting you make more decisions on your own now."

"But what are people going to think when we show up looking like a bunch of punk beatniks? Are they really going to want our help?"

"I don't see why not," Valiant Heart said, scooting up in line, "just 'cause some of us have an extra tattoo somewhere other than our tummies."

He opened his mouth to argue some more but Playful Heart launched some mac and cheese into it, causing him to cough and splutter. "Moving on to bigger and better things, who has the ketchup?"

The time had come, No-Heart was ready to deploy his opposites to destroy the Care Bear Family. And especially the special ones he was waiting to deploy. The time had come for his victory day!


	4. The Attack of the Opposites

The Attack of the Opposites

The day after the tattooing Fauna walked up to Grumpy's door she let herself in. "Ok Grumpus! Swifty told me about the tattoo and I want to see it."

Grumpy stared at her from his couch, the spoon with his cereal halfway to his open mouth. "Oh thanks I haven't eaten yet." Sitting next to him she took the spoon and the bowl and dug in.

Recovering, Grumpy scowled and snatched the bowl back. "Who needs an annoying little sister when I have you? Get your own bowl and then I'll show you my tattoo." Hopping up she trotted to the kitchen.

Valiant Heart had run into Loyal Heart and Snowy Heart on the way to the exercise place. He rolled his eyes, "Let me guess you want to see it right?"

Snowy nodded, "I am curious, about it."

"I am a bit intrigued myself," Loyal Heart said.

"All right, fine," Valiant turned around and removed his shirt, showing them all the tattoo on his back.

After Fauna and Grumpy ate their cereal while watching cartoons, he showed her his tattoo. She gave him two thumbs up, "I like it! It's very you."

"Well now that I have your approval I can sleep easy."

She shoved him, "Alot of the Pegasus think that this" she pointed to the caduceus on her fore head, "is a tattoo."

"Can't imagine where they got that idea from. How are things going over there?"

"They're going good. I still don't get to see Blue all that often. He's been working really hard."

"So then come back here. You know True Heart and Noble Heart wouldn't mind."

She smiled at him, "You know he isn't the only reason I left." Grumpy shrugged, "Oh well figured I'd try."

"OK, that's good enough," Valiant said, pulling his shirt back on, "Now I do have something to attend to.

"Oh I'll say you do," the dark menacing voice was one they were all familiar with. The three cousins looked up to see No-Heart floating above them and with him, what looked like three care bear cousins, all female, a pink dog, an orange fox, and black wolverine.

"No-Heart! What do you want?" Snowy asked, for even in the short time he'd been part of the family, they'd had to stop one or more of No-Heart's minor schemes, as had the other new family members.

"And what are those?" Loyal Heart asked.

"So glad you asked, I call them the opposites, there's one for each member of your little family and they are your final doom. But these three are different, you see not only can't they use their little stares, but they got something extra, powers like your own. Let me introduce, Treachery Heart Dog, Flare Heart Fox, and-" but he was cut off when the wolverine howled an eerie, soul shattering voice. Valiant tensed up recognizing the sound and drawing his Zanpakuto from where he always had it at his side.

"It's a hollow!" he shouted as his opposite's face was covered in a white skull mask and its body turned completely black with a hole in its chest. It cried one more time and charged at Valiant Heart, knocking both of them back a long distance and out of sight. Loyal Heart and Snowy both conjured their weapons, not knowing what was in store for them.

Hearing the mysterious howl, Fauna and Grumpy came running out of his house. "What was that?" A black blur tackled Fauna from behind, knocking her to the clouds. She shifted into a snake and bit at whatever it was. Jumping away from her, she and Grumpy saw a black wolf with its hackles raised.

"I've been tracking you since the moment No Heart brought us here."

Fauna regained her true form, eyes glowing, "Who exactly are you?" Grinning the black wolf shifted into a Pegasus. His markings were identical to Fauna's, except everywhere she was brown he was black and where she was white he was yellow.

His eyes glowed red, "I'm Hunter. Your opposite!" trumpeting a deep whinny he charged at her, teeth going for her neck.

Grumpy moved to help her but was grabbed from behind, "Uhuhuh. No fair helping." A female voice hissed in his ear. Elbowing whoever it was he broke free and turned. An orange female bear stood grasping her middle.

Grumpy scowled, "Lemme guess, No Heart made you just for me?"

"Good guess grumpy gills." She got her tummy symbol glowing.

Not wanting to take any risks, Loyal Heart charged at Treachery Heart, swinging down with the sword he had created, the pink dog just smiled and raised her arm, a round pink shield forming on it and deflecting the blow.

"What is this, I thought your powers were mine!" Loyal Heart said, backing off.

"It's true, we get our powers from the same source, but while you have offence, I have defense," Treachery replied, "you see not only are we evil while you're good and our genders are reversed, but our powers were flip-flopped to their opposites as well."

"I will still finish you, you poor imitation!" Loyal Heart tried to attack again but Treachery Heart just blocked and kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him reeling.

Snowy was having similar issues, he had started shooting his freezing quincy arrows at Flare Heart almost immediately, but she dodged them all easily.

"Maybe you'd like to see my powers, ever heard of the bount?" she asked.

"No, enlighten me!" Snowy said, taking a moment to rest.

"Bount are spirit eaters, though thankfully I don't need to do that, but you see, we fight with dolls, like this one," she took off a pendant she was wearing with a sword amulet and started spinning it around, "Ziget Dich, Flamberge!" The spinning pendant turned into a disc of fire and then dispersed before reassembling as a fox made entirely of fire, save for it's front and hind paws, which were made of some sort of armor. "Flamberge, destroy him!" the fire fox growled and charged at Snowy. Snowy dodged and the heat from the fire fox singed his fur, so he kept firing his ice arrows at it, trying to strike it.

Fauna struck at Hunter with her front hooves, warning him back. "I don't care what you are, you are not going to push me around." Turning into a jaguar she leapt for his neck, sinking teeth and claws into his flesh.

Grumpy was eyeing his opposite as they circled one another. "Are there one of you for each of us?"

She wagged her finger at him, "Sorry trade secret." She stared a beam at him which he avoided.

Loyal Heart and Treachery kept exchanging blows, and it was obvious that the opposite's lack of experience was a factor, Loyal scored several good hits and eventually had his opposite down on the ground and helpless, he stood over her.

"If you were not some sick copy of me, then I would find killing a woman distasteful, but as it stands you are nothing but a clone," he raised his sword.

"Go ahead," she grinned evily, "but what about your pretty wife and son?"

Loyal Heart stopped, "What about them?"

"There's one opposite for each of you, so where do you think her opposite, Depression Heart, is right now?"

"Oh no!" Loyal Heart turned and dashed back home.

Swift Heart was talking with Cozy Heart and Jolly Heart by the rainbow river when her Opposite found them. The orange bunny was leaning casually against a tree, watching the three talk. "Aren't you all just the closest chums. Pitty I have to break this up."

Swift Hearts eyes widened when she saw him. "Excuse me?"

He walked over to her, "Your going to find out soon enough when your family start to fall. I'm your opposite, Delay Heart, and I'm here to make sure you can't ruin No Heart's plans anymore." He charged at her, but she side stepped, sending him sprawling into a bush. Obviously he wasn't in control of his feet yet, and he wasn't quite as quick as her.

"Cozy Jolly hide! I'm getting him out of here." The two purple cousins dove into the river and remained submerged.

Emerging from the bush, Delay saw Swift Heart alone. "Where did the other two go?"

"None of your beeswax tough guy. Now if you want me so bad, you'll have to catch me first." Turning away from him she took off into the Forest, Delay running after her.

Snowy Heart managed to score a hit on the fox, freezing part of it and causing it to howl in pain. Flare Heart flinched and recalled her doll, "Well done, but I wonder, what's happening to the rest of your family?"

"What do you mean?" Snowy asked, lowering his bow.

"There's one of us for each of you, where do you think the others are," Flare Heart laughed maniacally, "as we speak the rest of your family is becoming, shall we say, crystal clear." Snowy cursed and took off.

Loyal Heart arrived home to see a navy blue cat looking around, "Come out, little kitty, I have a present for you and your little boy."

"You will not lay a finger on my wife!" the cat, Depression Heart, turned around only to get slashed across his front by Loyal Heart and fall backwards in serious pain. Loyal Heart was panting from having run all this way and immediately began to search for Proud Heart and Trust Heart.

"Loyal Heart, oh thank goodness you're all right!" Proud Heart emerged from where she'd been hiding behind a tree. Little Trust Heart had managed to sleep through the whole thing. Loyal Heart hugged his family carefully.

"I didn't kill him, we should leave before he gets up," he said, carefully escorting his wife away from their house. Proud Heart was too scared to attempt to argue with him on this.

Hunter turned into a turtle to dislodge Fauna. Then before she could shift again he shifted into a ram and hit her in the stomach with his horns. "You may be the original, but you are a mare and therefore are weaker then me."

She got to her paws, trying to regain her air. "Up...yours..." The combatants all stopped however when a yell sounded form nearby. Looking they saw a burnt orange bear staring Wish Bear. Before their eyes she shrunk down and slowly became incased in crystal.

Careless shrugged to Hunter, "Oh well, looks like playtimes over." Turning back to Fauna he saw her in her Pegasus form running away from him with Grumpy on her back.

"No!" Hunter turned on Careless, "You let them get away!"

Yawning she spread her arms, "Where are they going to go?"

Valiant clashed with his opposite over the Forest of Feelings, Valiant' using his powers to stand on an invisible platform under his feet. He struggled against the hollow grimacing.

"I don't know what the others are like, but you are just a monster!" He shoved the hollow back and called out his release command, "Electrify, Alastor!" His sword was released into its broadsword released form and began to clash with the thing again.

In an attempt to loose her opposite, Swift Heart had conjured a cloud mobile and headed for Care-a-Lot. Landing on the outskirts she began walking to the Hall of Hearts. This was the long ago agreed upon emergency gathering place and to her, this was definitely an emergency.

"You're not getting away from me that easily Swift Heart." Whipping around she saw Delay Heart moving away from a black cloud mobile.

"Lucky you I'm up for a challenge." Taking off she headed for the rendezvous point. Snowy dashed up and saw Swift Heart running away from her opposite. He took aim and tried to fire, but the shots kept missing, even as inexperienced as he was, Delay Heart was too fast. He swore and dashed as fast as he could to the Hall of Hearts.

Fauna and Grumpy arrived with the few others who had managed to escape their opposites and get to the safe place. In truth there weren't many, True Heart, Noble Heart, Defiant Heart, Snowy Heart, Friend, Secret, Funshine, and Treat Heart. She was telling Funshine that the cousins couldn't get away. True Heart was trying to remain calm for the sake of her cub, but knowing some of her family had been captured was working on her.

Snowy stayed close to the door, "I passed Swift Heart on the way in. Hopefully she'll get here in time." Grumpy joined him, looking frantic.

Throwing in a last burst of speed Swift Heart pulled away from Delay and arrived at the Hall of Hearts, smiling at Grumpy when she saw his shoulders relax. "Swifty get in they're coming!" Looking over her shoulder she saw a whole bunch of Opposites advancing on them.

She knew they were no match for her speed. "You guys stay inside, I'll distract them." Conjuring a giant lock from her tummy symbol, she sent it flying at the doors. As it connected it pushed the doors closed. She sped off again, not waiting to see if they closed all the way. Running around the building she plugged up the windows in a similar fashion.

Back around front, she came face to face with Delay. "Gotchya!" Grabbing for her he got only air.

"That's strike two Delay!" Yelling he chased her once more. As she moved away from where her family was, she heard Fauna give a distressed whinny. But she could think on the cause.

As they zig zagged over Care-a-Lot Delay taunted her, "Do you really think what you've done will save them? We can break that lock easy."

She turned around, running backwards, "But I gave them something I have plenty of...Time!" Sticking her tongue out at him she turned back around, and tripped over Careless Bears outstretched foot.

"Oops, how careless of me. Hope you can get a refund on all that time you got." Looking around she saw she had led him halfway back to the Hall of Hearts. Attempting to get up she cried out as pain shot up from her ankle. Clenching her teeth she rested her weight on the good foot.

"Oh poor bunny, did you hurt yourself? Here let me help." Delay reached for but suddenly went flying back, courtesy of Grumpy's fist.

"You try to touch her again and I'll make it so you can't walk too!" Grabbing Swift Heart around her waist, he took most of the weight off her foot.

She opened her mouth but he cut her off, "Before you yell at me for not staying in the Hall, remember what I told you in Wonderland."

She softened, "You'd always come for me."

Careless faked a sniffle, "This is so sweet! But too much sweet makes you sick, just like I'm about to be."

Delay stood next to her, "Let's get rid of them." Getting their symbols going they sent stares at Grumpy and Swift Heart. Before the stares could connect however Grumpy shoved Swift Heart out of the path of the stares. As she hit the ground once more she turned back to Grumpy in disbelief. He wouldn't look at her as he turned into a crystal.

Delay frowned, "Even though my name may imply I like procrastinating, this is really getting annoying. No more interruptions, you're done." Swift Heart didn't try to move as Delay prepared to stare again.

Suddenly, there was a burst in-between the two rabbits, knocking Delay backwards, and actually creating a crack in the clouds below. In the middle of the cloud, Valiant was struggling with his hollow opposite.

He grunted, "I'm sick of this!" he pushed back and jumped up, slicing the hollow's mask in two. The hollow gave one last strangled cry and dissolved away. "One more monster banished," he said, looking around and noticing Swift Heart lying on the ground injured, then seeing the opposites standing there he put two and two together.

"Stay away from Swift Heart," he warned.

"And what are you going to do about it!" Delay demanded.

"This!" He held up his fingers and declared, "Bakudo number 1, Sai!" suddenly Delay's arms locked behind his back and he fell onto his tummy struggling.

Valiant helped Swift Heart up and said, "Kido, I paralyzed him."

"Then we should run," Loyal Heart said running up with Proud Heart, their son, Jolly Heart and Cozy Heart, at the exact moment a cloudquake shook the place, "It appears that with so few of us active our home is falling to pieces."

"Help Swift Heart," Valiant said, passing the rabbit over to Cozy and Jolly, "I'll get the others." Valiant dashed away, crouching briefly as he ran and suddenly vanishing via a flash step.

At the Hall of Hearts, the opposites were about to break off the lock keeping them out. True Heart, Noble Heart, Friend, Secret, Funshine, and Treat Heart all stood back as Snowy Heart Fox pointed his conjured bow at the entrance and Defiant Heart Badger pulled out and extended his spear, holding it at the ready.

"Get Ready!" Snowy said, drawing back the bowstrings. At that moment the door to the Hall of Heart's burst open, easily breaking off its now weakened hinges. Snowy began firing wildly into the dust cloud that formed and heard the telltale sounds of ice forming, and shattering as the opposites smashed their various frozen limbs against the floor to keep them from behind held fast.

Treat Heart's opposite, Sour Heart Pig, found her easily and stared her, reducing her to a small yellow crystal. Friend and Secret went down next, victims to their opposites Enemy and Loudmouth Bear. Funshine, actually crying tried to charge her opposite, Bleak Bear, with a piece of the door that had landed near her, but she too was sealed in a crystal form.

Defiant Heart had more luck, finding his opposite, a female rainbow colored badger called Conformity Heart Badger, and slicing her in the legs with his spear before whacking her over the head with the spear butt to knock her out. Noble Heart stood in front of his wife True Heart as their opposites, Dishonor Heart Horse and Liar Heart Bear, bore down on them.

"Don't waste your time!" Dishonor said, "if you just give in this will be over faster."

"We'll never give up, not to No-Heart or you poor imitations of us!" Noble Heart shouted defiantly.

"Fine, keep up the spirit, but it won't matter in the end!" Dishonor used his call on Noble Heart. The purple horse turned and hugged True Heart briefly; True Heart had just one look into her husband's eyes, he looked so sad, before he shrunk down and was incased in a purple crystal. True Heart fell to her knees, scarcely able to believe what had just happened. The black bear liar heart walked over to her and grinned down at her.

"Looks like you're pregnant, I wonder? What will happen to your cub when you're sealed, I know that you'll be stuck in suspended animation but will it? Or will it even shrink, I can't wait to find out!"

"Well you're going to have too, Rensei Tokkan!" Valiant's shout was followed by his signature electrical drill attack, which knocked most of the opposites down, and blew a large hole in the back of the Hall of Hearts. Valiant sheathed his sword on his back and dashed over to True Heart, helping her up and saying, "Don't worry we'll get you out of here." He managed to get the founder to Snowy and Defiant and told them to help her escape on a cloud car while he held them off. Before the left Valiant slipped something into Defiant's pocket.

"What's that?" the badger asked.

"Give it to Swift Heart," Valiant Heart said, drawing his sword again, "now get moving, I'll catch up later!" Valiant stood at the entrance to the Hall of Hearts as the opposites fanned out in front of him.

The wolverine stared them down, "I already destroyed my own opposite and I'm sure I could do the same to any one of you, so bring it!"

"Oh, I'm sure you could, Care Bear, but this has gone on long enough," No-Heart floated down in front of Valiant Heart with the two other unusual opposites, Treachery Heart Dog and Flare Heart fox next to him.

A Red opposite stood forwards and shook her fist, "Yeah, and where's the bear I'm based on, Good Luck, I haven't found him anywhere."

"Wouldn't you like to know," Valiant said.

"We will find him, and any others who have eluded us, once we've dealt with you!" No-Heart declared, raising his hands to prepare to finish of Valiant Heart.

Valiant Heart sealed his Zanpakuto and sheathed it, "Actually, I very much doubt that," he held his hands together and the shouted.

"Hado 33, Sokatsui!" but instead of shooting it at his foes, he shot the blue ball of energy down at the clouds under his feet. The blast had the expected effect of throwing up a cloud to cover him, but what was unexpected was the massive cloud quake that hit at exactly the same moment. The whole ground shook as the clouds of the Kingdom of Caring began to break apart, the Hall of Hearts collapsed in on itself and as Valiant Heart used his flash steps to get away the opposites were forced to create their black cloud vehicles to escape as most of the clouds beneath them broke away.

Valiant stood a fair distance away on an invisible platform he had created and watched, feeling a pang of guilt at abandoning their home and their friends to No-Heart and his opposites, even moreso as he watched most of their home break apart, leaving only a few scattered cloud islands with the ruined Hall of Hearts and a few patches of forest left. He sighed and turned, once again flash stepping away.

No-Heart looked around, "Feh, it's still here, but no matter what's left of their precious homeland will vanish after the rest of them are gone." He looked over the pile of crystal sealed Care Bears on a small pillow that his opposites had collected, "There are a few missing," he said, angrily, "but for now, I'll keep these and find some use for them."

"Don't bet on it, No-Face!" suddenly a fly that had been nearby turned into Fauna's natural form and charged, kicking the pillow and crystals out of No-Heart's hand and scattering them around. The crystal sealed Care Bears all flashed for an instant, and then they plummeted out of sight.

No-Heat cursed and turned to see Fauna fleeing to catch up with the remaining family members briefly before she once gain vanished form view, changing form to avoid being seen. "Get them all! NOW!" he shouted at his opposites who obediently took off after the remaining Care Bear Family members.

Somehow, the remaining Care Bears: Defiant Heart, Swift Heart, Jolly Heart, Cozy Heart, Snowy Heart, True Heart, Proud Heart, Loyal Heart, baby Trust Heart Valiant Heart and Fauna managed to elude their pursuers and land in a heavily wooded area where they would be hidden from any aerial searches for a while. As expected they were all very downcast, even the normally stalwart Valiant Heart could think of nothing to say to rally their spirits. Their home was gone, most of their family were sealed in crystals and, according to Fauna, could be anywhere in the world now, and they were vastly outnumbered by No-Heart and his opposite army.

Swift Heart sat back against a tree, head in her hands. Her ears were flopped forward creating a veil for her face. "Did that really just happen?" Cozy Heart stared an ace bandage out of her tummy symbol and gave it to Fauna to wrap around Swift Heart's injured ankle.

"Those Opposite blokes came outta no where. Our bum's would abeen up tha gum tree if Swifty 'adn't a distracted that yankee roo."

"Not to mention," Loyal Heart said, "two of those opposites are more than just dark versions of us. They have powers like mine and Snowy's." Proud Heart was now trying to soothe Trust Heart, who had started crying a moment ago.

"And my shifting." As Fauna thought about Hunter she didn't realize she was wrapping Swift Hearts ankle tighter then necessary.

"Too tight, too tight!"

"Oh sorry Swift Heart." Loosening the bandage she finished up wrapping it before standing and moving away. True Heart was crying, more than anyone here she felt as though she had failed because almost everyone was gone, especially her husband. She was hugging her pregnant tummy defensively as she sat down. Defiant Heart put his now collapsed spear back in his pocket and felt something in there, something that Valiant Heart had given to him earlier.

Fauna went over to True Heart and hugged her from behind. "Truey you have to calm down. It's not good for either of you."

True Heart wiped her eyes, "I know, thank you Fauna," she managed a weak smiled and looked behind her at the pegasus.

Defiant Heart walked over to Swift Heart and reached out his hand, "Here, Valiant said you would want this," he said, dropping the item into her hands. Swift Heart blinked in surprise at the blue crystal in her open palms, it was Grumpy!

"I scooped him up on the way to help the others, we don't know how to break the spell but I figured it would be best if he was at least with us instead of lost or in No-Heart's hands," Valiant explained.

"Thank you Valiant Heart!" She held the crystal close to her chest. Nothing was going to separate her from it. "I feel much better having him here."

Fauna gave True Heart a final squeeze before standing, "So what are you guys going to do now?"

"Us guys?" Defiant asked in disbelief, "Maybe you didn't have the same experience we did, but we're being hunted, and something tells me you don't want No-Heart or a clone of you with your ability to shift into anything to find Pegasus Falls, so you're in it with us now."

"And as for what we shall do," Loyal Heart said, "We need to find someplace to hide ourselves where we won't be easily discovered; we're in no state to defend ourselves or our position if No-Heart locates us."

"Exactly Defiant Heart. I need to get word back home, just incase Hunter does know how to find his way there. So I need to find the nearest gate, let Blue and Wind Rider know what's going on, and then I can meet up with you again. Got a problem with that?" She flashed her eyes briefly.

"That's enough!" Valiant said, taking a stronger stance, "I'm not sure who to side with but I think it best that you wait at least a day, when our clones are tired so you can get to the gate quickly and quietly. Until then, we have to hide ourselves."

Suddenly, the ground began to shake slightly and a patch of earth began to push up. Everyone was suddenly alert until a mole poked her head out of the ground, she was dark green, had a heart shape on the end of her nose and was wearing simply homespun clothes; everyone could see by her eyes that she was quite blind. She poked her head around, seeming to sniff.

"I'm sorry if I am interrupting you, but I felt more people than normal were around the woods," she gave quizzical look as though she could see.

Fauna scowled at True Heart, "You and Noble sure missed an awful lot of cubs on your first time around."

Cozy Heart waddled up to the mole, "Sssorry to have disturbed you. We've been having a rough day to sssay the leassst."

The mole shook her head, "It's no bother, you have no idea how lonely it gets down here, none of the other animals can understand or talk with me."

"Fauna, we were under pursuit by Dark Heart, we were still searching for others when the Great Wishing Star took us to the Kingdom of Caring," True Heart explained to Fauna, then smiled at the mole, "But regardless, it's nice to meet you," she approached careful and extended a hand, "My name is True Heart Bear, one of the founders of the Care Bear family."

The mole held her digging claw out and shook True Heart's hand, almost knocking True Heart down because of how strong she was, "Nice to meet all of you."

"I don't mean to interrupt miss?" Defiant Heart said, trying to guess her name.

"Call me what you want, I don't have a name," the mole said.

"Right, but we were hoping you could help us, we're being hunted and we need a place to hide," Defiant explained.

"If that's the case, my home underground is big enough to accommodate you all for some time," the mole explained, "you can just follow the tunnel down and I'll close it up behind us."

Swift Heart smiled, "I like your style!" Feeling right at home she bounded into the tunnel. Cozy Heart and Jolly Heart followed her down.

The platypus paused next to the mole, "Cheers love fo' yo' 'ospitality."

The mole smiled as the others went down, True Heart and Proud Heart, carrying Trust Heart, going down next, Loyal Heart, Snowy and Valiant went next. Defiant stayed behind and looked to Fauna.

"You coming down with us?" he asked.

She shifted down into a badger herself, "For a day. As soon as day break comes, I have to get in contact with home."

Defiant nodded as badger Fauna slipped down the hole. The mole blinked, as she felt something that was clearly not a horse go past her.

"What was that?" she asked surprised.

Defiant smiled as he got in after Fauna, "We'll explain everything down there." The mole just shrugged but followed them down after closing her tunnel up at the top.


	5. In Hiding

In Hiding

The mole's living space was large and spacious, and as expected, completely pitch black because the mole had no need for lighting. Not wanting to force them to spend their time in the dark, Snowy Heart conjured a lamp from his symbol that was bright enough to allow them to see each other.

The mole blinked as she looked around, "So, who are you all exactly?" she asked.

"I'm Swift Heart Rabbit, the one with the whistle on her 's' is Cozy Heart Penguin, dude with a funny accent is Jolly Heart Platypus..." She stopped seeing the two scowl at her, "What? She's blind? I needed a different way to describe you to her. Anyways, then there is Loyal Heart, who sounds like he's straight off of the Round Table, his wife Proud Heart Cat and their son Trust Heart Dog. You already spoke to True Heart, and the others are Valiant Heart Wolverine, Snowy Heart Fox, Defiant Heart Badger, and Fauna Greywolf."

"Nice to meet you all," the mole said, "Welcome to my home, it's simple," she said gesturing around, the place had nothing that one would consider furniture, but a few spots with soft grass and moss for sitting or sleeping on, "But I mean what are you, I can tell that you're animals, but I've never met other animals that can talk."

"We're the Care Bear Family, our job is to help others share their feelings, but, we're having difficulty with that right now," True Heart explained.

"Why, what happened?" the mole asked.

"Well, we got nothing better to do," Defiant Heart said, "we might as well tell her the whole story from the beginning.

For the next few hours the story unfolded for the mole, everything about the family, the various adventures they had, the battles in Wonderland, and ending with the battle against the opposites which had led them to here. The mole sat for a while digesting this information, "That's quite a story, and I can see why you're in such a bind."

"Hey, I know it's hardly a good time, but I think our new friend here needs a name," Defiant Heart said, having sat next to her.

"That's true, she is one of us," True Heart said.

"I am?" the mole was surprised.

"Yes, you are, miss mole," Loyal Heart said, "you have the heart marking on your nose that shows you are one of us, so what would you like to be named?"

"Well, I've never thought about it before," she admitted.

"How about Terra Heart Mole," Defiant suggested.

"I like it. It sssuitessss you." Cozy told her.

"I wish Playful Heart was here, he always came up with the best names. O! How about Blind Heart? Because they say love is blind?" Swift Heart voiced.

Defiant Heart blushed, but Valiant saved him embarrassment, "Terra Heart suits her fine, Swift Heart, though I'd like to know, Terra, how do you see us?"

"Well," Terra Heart said, getting used to the idea of having a name, "A few ways, first I can feel vibrations in the earth, that's how I knew you were above me and most of what happens around here, and I have special receptors in my nose, I can sort of smell life around me. Also, I may not be able to see, but I'm not totally blind, in bright light like this I can make out dark shapes and see vaguely where you are in here."

"Standard issue mole survival package." Fauna quipped from her place in the burrow.

"I see," Valiant said, "but we need to figure out what we're going to do from here. We do appreciate your hospitality, Terra, but we don't want to spend the rest of our lives down here, we have to rescue the others, Fauna said she managed to get them away from No-Heart so we'll have to search for them. Then we have to destroy the opposites and maybe find out how No-Heart created them. We need to get our home back, I don't think Proud Heart wants to raise her son while on the run, or True Heart wants to have her child without her husband around."

"Children actually," True Heart said. Everyone turned to her.

"What's that? Ya got more than on bun in the oven preggers?" Jolly had a big grin on his face. Fauna tried her best to conceal a shudder.

"How many cubs are you having True Heart?" Swift Heart questioned.

"Twins," True Heart said, placing her hands over her tummy symbol, "Take Care's sonogram showed me that one's a boy and a girl. Noble Heart and I also decided on the names for them before all of this started. We're going to call them Hugs and Tugs." She smiled, "We were going to tell you all later, but this seemed as good a time as any."

Proud Heart scooted next to Fauna, as she nursed her son, "Fauna, I've been meaning to ask, what's you're issue with pregnancy, first me and now True Heart, even though you hugged her before we came down here."

Her fur puffed up slightly, "I hugged her from behind, so I could avoid **it**. I don't mean to avoid you, it just weirds me out. I can't imagine the whole growing another life inside you thing without thinking of it like a parasitic relationship. I know that sounds awful, but that's just how I feel. Plus all the commitment afterwards. I'd be terrified to be responsible for another being."

Proud Heart smiled as she looked down at her nursing son, "I understand, believe me I was terrified when I first found out. I was so worried about what would happen to me, what I would do, what Loyal Heart would say. But I have to tell you, the feeling is indescribable, wonderful and at the same time burdening, and yes it is hard to care for little Trust Heart but it's still the most rewarding thing I've ever done."

"Maybe my view will change in a few years. All I know is that as of now, a baby is the last thing I want. And even then I will be heavily considering adoption." Proud Heat just rolled her eyes.

Valiant spoke up again, "Well we need to decide what we're going to do, in my opinion, when Fauna gets back after telling the other Pegasis what's going on, we need to split into groups in order find the others, and maybe Fauna can find a way to reverse this whole crystal prison spell they've been put under. We can't all go as some of us aren't fit to fight or travel."

"I'll stay behind to protect those who can't travel," Defiant Heart volunteered.

"When I get back I can sneak into No Heart's castle and see if I can find a reversal spell." Fauna said.

"Good idea," Loyal Heart said, "I assume you would prefer to go alone, or perhaps you can convince Blue to return with you. I'm sure he would not want his lady to be facing such danger alone."

She smirked at Loyal Heart, "I don't think I'll have to try very hard to convince him."

"Right, but we still need to decide what groups we'll be going in," Snowy Heart said.

Swift Heart raised her hand, "I'll go help look for the others. I can outrun the Opposites easy once my ankle feels better."

"You shouldn't go alone," Valiant Heart said, "maybe Jolly or Cozy should go with you, just in case you find one of them underwater."

"The other can come with me," Snowy Heart added, "I can swim but not that well, nor can I fight in the water."

"You know I'm not going to let Ssswifty go alone." She flung her flipper around Swift Hearts shoulder.

"An whereah moi sheila goes OI go." Jolly nuzzled his beak into Cozy's neck making her giggle.

Defiant Heart sighed, "Maybe we should all discuss this when we've gotten some sleep, as little as I would like to split up such a close team we need to keep teams small to avoid being spotted. As long as we're down here we're safe for the moment."

"You're welcome to stay here as long as you want," Terra said and yawned, "but I do believe we should all get some rest."

As the group found comfortable spots to curl up on the ground, Swift Heart found herself laying her head on Fauna's furry badger body. Curling her body around Grumpy's crystal she closed her eyes. Cozy Heart and Jolly lay next to each other a short distance from Fauna and Swift Heart. Defiant Heat slept close to Terra Heart, who just slept where she had been sitting. Loyal and Proud Heart curled up together, carefully cradling the sleeping Trust Heart between them, True Heart slept on her back and Valiant lay down near her to sleep. 

As soon as Fauna's internal clock told her it was morning, she found her way back up the tunnel and broke through to the surface. Taking a moment to fill in the hole, she then regained her true form. Stretching her wings and ruffling her feathers, she invoked her locator incantation. "Day Break and Night Shade, I ask that you show me the fastest way home." A gold light drifted from her and formed a circle in the air. A picture formed of a cave high up in the mountains. "Where?" A gold arrow pointed the way for her. Looking briefly over her shoulder she whispered, "Be safe till I'm back." Before taking to the air. 

Valiant Heart was the second one up and seeing that the light had gone out created a dim one so he could see. He felt stuffy, not used to being underground but he just sat, waiting for others to get up. True Heart was the one who woke up next, disturbed by her children moving and her own hunger.

"Morning Valiant," she said.

"Morning, True Heart, hungry?" he asked.

She actually glared at him, "You have to ask," she blinked, "sorry, hormones."

"No problem, there's bound to be edible food around here, I'll take you up to the surface and we can get some food for the others and you three as well," he got up and helped her up.

Jolly Heart woke up next. Seeing Cozy was still asleep he went topside rather then waking her, she'd need all the rest she could get. "G'day mates. 'ows it lookin fo' some eats?"

"Decent," Valiant Heart said, pointing to a small pile of roots and berries, "True Heart is mostly just eating though, fortunately I know what's edible in this area, I know about what's edible out here. Everyone else still asleep?"

He nodded. "OI'm gonna go look fer a stream o' lake. Back in 15 if Cozy wakes up an OI'm not back yet."

"OK, hope you find some fish or water plants," Valiant called after him. 

When Jolly returned a half hour later, he had gotten lucky and found a pond full of fish, everyone was awake. He walked up to Cozy Heart and gave her a kiss, "OI come bearing gifts!" Handing her a fish he put the other 6 he had caught on the ground. "Any takers?"

"Sure," Snowy Heart said, as he stood next to a fire pit he had made while Jolly was fishing. He began rubbing sticks together in the pit and before long had a fire going. "I know you two probably eat fish raw, but I'm sure everyone else here prefers them cooked."

Once the fish were cooked everyone started eating, Terra Heart only ate the plants and Proud Heart explained she hadn't started Trust Heart on solid foods yet so she nursed him once she had finished eating. As they ate, they shared conversation, there wasn't much to discuss but some people did discuss things.

"None of us have seen much of Proud Heart lately," Snowy said to Loyal Heart, "She doesn't seem as stuck up as she used to be," he noted the coring look on the orange cat's face as she nursed her son. In truth not many people had spent much time with the couple since Trust Heart was born, but Snowy had spent a fair amount of time with Loyal Heart as they trained together.

Loyal Heart nodded, "It's not as noticeable in me as I was always devoted to her, but parenthood has done much to change both my lady and myself. Caring for Trust Heart has helped to soften her temperament."

Swift Heart was picking at her fish while she stared at the blue crystal on the grass before her. She wondered if Grumpy was still conscious and aware in there or if he was in some sort of hibernation. She worried it had hurt being turned into a crystal and if there would be any side effects when they found a way to turn him back. That's when a thought hit her, "Hey, how do you think No Heart made those clones of us?"

Snowy Heart looked up, "That's a very good question, from my experiences and what you've told me, No-Heart's never been able to this before."

"Maybe he had some help," Valiant Heart suggested.

"Beastly isn't exactly the sharpest crayon in the box, I don't think he could concoct this. He can't even work his own two feet half the time." Swift Heart told them.

"That is true," Loyal Heart said, "Perhaps he found someone else who hates us and who helped him with this magic of his."

Cozy Heart swallowed her fish, "Maybe it wasss in one of hisss sssspell booksss? He doesss have an awful lot of them."

Proud Heart looked up as she helped her son burp, "Spell book, spell book? That reminds me of something," she thought for a moment, "Remember that spirit book we had to fight once?"

Snowy looked at Proud Heart, "Spirit book?"

"It was before you were around," Valiant Heart said, "A kid called Nicolas accidentally unleashed a spirit from a magical book on this world and we were forced to stop it. It took a lot out of us."

"I was sore for weeks after that one. We had barely learned how to stare back then." Swift Heart paused considering, "You don't think...?"

Loyal Heart growled, "No-Heart may have found the Spirit Book. In Nicholas' hands it gave us serious trouble, but he was inexperienced, if a powerful magic user like No-Heart got his hands on it..."

"Then we might end up in this very same situation we are in now," Valiant finished. 

Meanwhile Fauna saw that she had arrived in the desert region of Pegasus Falls. The guards nodded to her granting her entrance. She paused, "I need to get a message to all the gate guardians. If a Pegasus with my markings but in yellow and black tries to gain entrance he should be detained immediately." The guards nodded. Spreading her wings she headed for the royal caves in Pearl Head Mountains.

Blue and Wind Rider were going over some of the important rituals the king had to conduct when one of the messengers came in, "Fauna is here to see both of you. She says it's important." Blue smiled widely as Wind Rider told the messenger to let her in.

Entering Fauna paused briefly to do the appropriate greeting, spreading her wings wide and bending her left foreleg up she lowered her nose down to the ground, "Greetings Kingsire." At Wind Rider's nod she stood tall and turned to Blue. Spreading her wings and bobbing her head she said, "Kingling Blue."

He nodded to her as well. "So my dear, what news do you bring us?" Walking to stand next to them she told them how No Heart had made clones of the Care Bears and how some of the others had been turned to crystals. She also told them all about Hunter.

Blue's ears went back at that. "I just came to warn you of him. I don't think he knows how to get here and I sure don't want him to find out and bring No Heart along for the ride."

Wind Rider nodded, "I will be sure everyone knows what he looks like and to be sure to get the Guard if they see him."

She nudged his nose in thanks. "I have to go, the others are waiting for me."

"Hang on I'm coming with you."

She smiled at Blue, "Are you sure? This isn't your fight."

"If it involves you then it is my fight."

Turning to Wind Rider, he looked surprised to see the King laughing, "Did you really think I was going to be able to keep you focused if you knew Fauna was in trouble?"

"My thanks Kingsire." He and Fauna both bowed to Wind Rider.

"Be careful you two." Nodding they headed out of the caves and flew back to the desert portal. 

Back at the fire, everyone had finished eating and Valiant stood up, "All right, we can't wait for Fauna to get back, she said she was going to No-Heart's castle once she returned to find a way to reverse this whole crystal prison spell so we need to do our part and find the others before No-Heart does. The way I see it, we have three advantages here," he counted off on his fingers as he continued, "One, No-Heart doesn't know where we are, two, until now, No-Heart and the, spirit book if it's involved, don't have first hand experience with our special abilities, and three ," he looked at Terra Heart, "We have a new friend he knows nothing of and can hide us until we are ready to move, not to mention I destroyed my opposite already." Valiant started pacing, "We have to split up, but small teams because if we move in too large groups then we will be easier to spot. And most importantly, we have to go by foot; if we fly No-Heart may find all of us too quickly."

" 'Ow small o' groups were you thinkin mate?"

"And how are we going to keep in contact with each other once we sssplit up?"

"Well there's the rub we won't be able to keep in contact or No-Heart and those opposites might be able to find us easily, and we need to move in groups of no more than two," He looked around, "I know it's rough but we need to move in the groups like this and I know how we're going to. First, Swift Heart, you're fast enough to move one of us by foot and keep ahead of others with no trouble. I have my flash steps which can take us long distances in a moment, and Snowy recently had a breakthrough," he looked to the fox who nodded, stood up and suddenly vanished, reappearing next to Valiant in much the same way the wolverine did.

"It's called Hirenkyaku, or screen step, I basically ride spirit energy at high speed to a new location," Snowy explained.

"Right, so each of us needs to go with someone who can't move at high speed. Cozy, Jolly, you two can swim and Snowy and I can't all that well, and Swift Heart, I know you're fast but last time, you were tripped and couldn't run so you need to go with someone who can defend you."

"That leaves me as the only possible candidate," Loyal Heart said standing up.

Swift Heart grinned at him, "I guess there are worse travel buddies I could think of."

Cozy Heart waddled over to Snowy, "Cold loving birdsss of a feather ssshould flock together."

"That leaves you an me aye Valiant?" The platypus grinned at him.

"That it does, Jolly, and unless there's more to do here, we should get moving right away," Valiant said. Before they got moving, Loyal Heart kissed his wife and son good bye and True Heart stood up, walking carefully over to Valiant Heart.

"Valiant, I must say I'm proud of you, and I'm sure Noble Heart would be too if he was here," she wiped a tear from her eye.

"Thanks True Heart, managing this family may be too much for me to handle day to day but," he grinned, "if Tenderheart, Brave Heart, you and Noble Heart are ever incapacitated again, I'd be more than willing to take command in a crisis situation. But we should go," he took Jolly's hand and pulled him half a step before they vanished.

Snowy took Cozy's flipper, "We should probably check the colder parts of the world," he said before they too vanished via Snowy's screen step.

Loyal Heart stepped back from Proud Heart and took Swift Heart's hand, "I'm ready when you are."

"Let's go!" She tucked Grumpy's crystal in the top of her pants. Gripping his hand she sped away from the clearing and those staying behind.

Defiant Heart looked around at those who were left, "Well I guess it's just us for now." No one else really had anything else to say because now it was up to the world travelers.


	6. World Tours

World Tours

Thunder cracked and lightning flashed around No Hearts palace, causing Fauna and Blue to flatten closer to the clouds. "So the plan is to get inside, poke around, and see if you can find out just what No Heart did to create Hunter and the others?"

"Yup. That's pretty much it. Got a problem with it?"

"Multiple, but they aren't going to change your mind."

She smirked, "Good boy." She was watching shadows patrol the area between them and the front door. "I think our best bet is one of the windows."

Blue nodded, "The higher the better."

Fauna shifted into a falcon, "And the princess was found alone in the highest room of the tallest tower."

He joined her in falcon form scoffing, "You are hardly a princess." Whacking her with his wings he took to the air, Fauna following.

Flare Heart Fox, who was waiting outside noticed a flash of feathered wings, but dismissed it as Hunter trying to be funny.

"Waiting long?" Treachery Heart's voice got Flare Heart's attention.

"Not long, but we need to get going, No-Heart said we have to capture of destroy the remaining Care Bears, and we have to track down and destroy the ones we're based on before they cause any more trouble," Flare Heart said.

"All right then, let's get moving," the two opposites departed, each grabbing a normal opposite to take with them, Flare Heart took Frigid Heart Penguin and Treachery Heart took Delay Heart with her as they took off, each of the normal opposites creating a black cloud car to travel in. The other opposites began to disperse as well, searching for the remaining Care Bears.

Fauna looked from her perch on the window sill as the opposites left the castle, "Well this makes things easier. I hope that forgery is gone too."

Blue gained his human form. They had landed in one of No Hearts storage towers. The room was full of nothing but boxes and dusty cloth.

"Guess we should just work our way down from here." Fauna now in her human form as well walked past him. Looking down the tower, she saw an empty black hole. "I hope the others are doing better."

When Swift Heart finally slowed down, Loyal Heart was a bit dizzy. Seeing everything whoosh by so fast had made it a bit hard for him to keep stable, "That was quite a ride, Swift Heart," he said, trying to look around, "where are we?"

She looked around trying to get her bearings. The forest had disappeared to be replaced by wide open space and tons of fields some with corn and some of hay or just empty. "Somewhere out west I think."

"I see, but where should we start looking," he looked down at Swift Heart, "Question, can you sense anything coming from Grumpy, perhaps if we can feel the emotions of our trapped family we can use that to find them."

Taking the crystal out of her waistband she waved it in front of him. "He's just a shiny rock Loyal Heart. There isn't anything coming from him."

"Perhaps," Loyal Heart said, "but we don't really have many other ways to find them. Try focusing on him, maybe you can feel something, you are closer to him than I am. Or should I just stand guard while you search every single barn and haystack in the countryside?"

Starring him down for a moment she slowly lowered herself to the ground and sat Indian style. Placing the crystal in the hollow in her legs she closed her eyes and focused on nothing but the crystal. At first there was nothing, making her feel absolutely ridiculous. About to give up she gasped when she felt a surge of warm energy come from the crystal. "Whoa!"

"What? What did you feel?" Loyal Heart asked.

"He pulsed. This warm energy just came out of him all of a sudden." Scowling she looked at the crystal, "Why did you choose now to do anything?" The crystal shocked her, "Ow! Don't get snarky with me." Her eyes flew up to meet Loyal Heart, "They can give off different energy's."

"It looks as though he's responding to your presence; I can feel it even from here. Valiant and Snowy are better and sensing such energy than I am, for now we should hope that we can feel other such emanations when we get close to the others," Loyal Heart observed.

"Well we are Care Bears. Emotions are what we do best. Like Mr. Negativity here." She pointed to the crystal.

Loyal Heart touched the crystal, "Perhaps we should try to feel for the others," he said, trying to concentrate on any strong emotions nearby.

Loyal Heart tried to concentrate as Valiant had shown him, he sensed something faint and pointed, "Over there, that haystack, I guess we should start digging then. Looks like we're the right species for this job," he said, starting to dig through the haystack.

Cracking her knuckles Swift Heart began furiously digging away at the hay stack. The deeper she went, the more the emotion began to surface. It felt like fear. Finally she saw a small green crystal sitting in the middle of the hay stack.

"I got it!" Taking it out she held it ups so Loyal Heart could see. "It looks like Gentle Heart."

"That's one down, I don't sense any others around here, I guess we should move on," Loyal Heart took Swift Heart's hand.

She felt the Grumpy crystal shock her again. "You are being absolutely ridiculous. You know he is married and in love with Proud Heart. Stop being jealous!" Flicking the crystal she gripped Loyal Hearts hand and took off for the south.

The place that Cozy Heart and Snowy Heart went, was predictably, cold and snow covered, the way the two of them liked it.

"I sensed something near here," Snowy said, "I only hope whoever it is not buried, and easy to spot."

"Luckily no one in our family other than you isss white. Or we would never find them." Dropping to her belly, Cozy Heart slid a few feet before waiting for Snowy to catch up. Snowy jogged after Cozy Heart, he could run pretty fast, though he was amused at Cozy's way of moving around. He continued to search with his senses se they moved around.

Sliding over a patch of ice, Cozy Heart felt a brief moment of warmth. Skidding to a halt she want back to investigate it. She had slid over a recently refrozen patch of ice and underneath was a yellow crystal. "Hey Ssssnowy, look."

"It's yellow, probably Funshine. Want me to shoot it out," he said, pulling out his Quincy bow, "Or do you have some other way to get her out?"

She held up her flippers, "We are not a digging people, the penguinsss. Unlessss you want me to peck at the ice for a day and a half."

"Good point, I doubt my ice arrows would work, they might just make it worse," Snowy Heart said.

"Then maybe I can help you!" Snowy whirled around to see flare Heart fox standing there, spinning her talisman, with Frigid Heart Penguin standing next to her.

Cozy stood protectively over Funshines crystal in the ice, "How did you find ussss?"

"Luck of the draw mostly, but I'm not about to give away secrets," Flare Heart spun her talisman faster, "Ziget Dich, Flamberege!" A moment later, the fire fox was standing in front of Snowy, only this time it had three tails. Snowy watched the snow under its feet melting, and smiled, there was their solution.

Frigid Heart scooped up a flipper full of snow and shaped it into a snowball. "You dodged me in your home, but now we're on even turf. I wonder if you'll have the same luck here."

Cozy Heart bent down and flicked snow at him. "I think I will."

Rather than fight, Snowy simply dodged, jumping around and using his screen steps. Both Flare Heart and her doll were getting very annoyed as Snowy wasn't even fighting back.

"Get back here, so I can devour you!" the fox, Flamberge, said, as it tried to bite Snowy, only for him to dodge.

As Frigid chucked a snowball at Cozy, she ducked, causing the snowball to fly over her head and hit Flare Heart. "Woopssss. Looksss like sssomeone hasss to work on their aim."

"Watch your aim!" Flare Heart shouted turning on Frigid Heart. Snowy took the chance and fired one arrow at Flamberge. The fiery fox dodged aside, and Snowy fired again, it jumped away, revealing Funshine's crystal, now in a pool of water from the fire of the fox doll. Seeing Funshine's crystal free, Cozy dropped to her belly and slid for it. On her way she knocked Frigid Heart over, causing him to face plant in the snow. Grabbing the crystal in her beak, as if it were a fish, she continued to slide away from her opposite.

Snowy used his screen step to get near Cozy Heart, "Let's see how much cold you can handle, Frigid!" Snowy began firing off his freezing arrows at very high speed, Frigid Heart was unable to dodge them as all of them struck him dead on.

Squawking in annoyance he tried to slide away from the volley. "Probably about the same amount of 'cozyness' as she can take. Light her up Flare Heart."

"You heard the penguin, Flamberge!" The fox dived at Cozy Heart closing its fire jaws on her flipper. Snowy turned and shot a frozen arrow forcing Flamberge to back off. Snowy dashed to her side and asked.

"Are you all right, Cozy Heart?"

She showed him her burnt flipper, "I'll ssssurvive."

"That's good, we'll see about more thorough healing later," Snowy said, shooting off a few more arrows at the doll, Flamberge, making just enough hits to force Flare Heart to recall it.

"Curse you, you stupid Quincy!" the red fox said through her gritted teeth.

Cozy wagged her unburned flipper at the fox, "Don't be hating on Snowy Heart. Not everyone can be that cool."

"Thanks, Cozy, but I think we should get moving, I don't think any of our friends are nearby," Snowy Heart said, taking her unburnt flipper in his hand as he let his bow disperse.

She cradled Funshine in the crook of her arm. "The sssooner the better if you asssk me."

"Don't you dare!" Frigid Heart said, attempting to slide at them, but he was to slow as Snowy used his screen step to take him and Cozy Heart away to somewhere else.

Flare Heart swore, "I can't believe they got away and found a crystal with one of their family members in it!"

"No heart is going to kill us if he finds out." He dusted the snow off himself.

"Then we'll just get them before he does find out," Flare Heart said, "Conjure one of those black cars of yours and get us moving!"

He sneered at her, "And you can't why?" Taking a deep breath he created the cloud mobile she requested.

"You know very well why, it's the trade off for being able to use my doll Flamberge," Flare Heart said, getting into the car. Rolling his eyes Frigid Heart started the cloud mobile and began to drive in the direction he thought they had taken.

Jolly and Valiant were walking through a forest looking for some of their family members. It was mid afternoon and even though the trees were giving some shade, Jolly felt himself sweltering. "Croikey OI feel loike a shrimp on the barbie." Stripping off his shirt he hung it over his neck.

"It's hot all right," Valiant Heart said, "But I think I can feel something other this way," he said moving ahead faster. He stopped at the edge of a murky lake, he couldn't see into it but he could sense one of their family somewhere down there.

"Guess it's up to you, I can't swim that well and I definitely couldn't see in that."

"Lucky thing OI always wear moi togs." Stripping off his shorts exposed his light blue swimming trunks. "OI'll give this billabong a once ovah an see what OI can foind." Wading into the shallows he quickly disappeared beneath the surface. Once submerged he closed his eyes and began sweeping his beak along the bottom.

Valiant rolled his eyes, "I don't think I'll ever understand how that platypus talks, I can barely understand what he's saying right now." He drew his sword and looked around, keeping away lest the opposites attacked right then and there.

As Jolly Heart combed the bottom of the murky lake he felt something ram into him from the side, sending him flying sideways. Trying to get his bearings and right himself, he started to search for electronic pulses in the water. Whatever it was knocked into him again. He tensed his hind feet, getting his spur ready to use. Feeling electric signals from his right he spun, slashing through the water. Whatever it was pulled back and he used the moment to head butt it.

Valiant suddenly saw the water start to get churned up he was worried but there wasn't much he could do, he wasn't a good swimmer and he couldn't risk using his electrical attacks with Jolly under there.

"What am I supposed to do now?" he asked himself.

The strange thing attacking him came at him again. He tried to grip whatever it was with his beak. He clamped down on fur that felt a lot like his and next thing he knew he was whacked in the face with a heavy circular object. Realizing whatever it was after him, he headed for the surface. Popping his head out of the water he opened his eyes and began to scan the water around him.

Valiant spotted Jolly and called out to him, "Jolly Heart, are you all right?"

"Somethins roit agro that OI was down there. The bugger attacked me. Couldn' get an ace look at it tho."

"Unless the wildlife here's aggressive, it might be an opposite, maybe you should get out of the water so we can see for sure," Valiant suggested, calling to Jolly.

About to swim to shore he felt whatever it was clamp onto his feet and pull him under. All he could do was yelp before he was submerged. A moment later a mustard yellow platypus head surfaced. "Such a dimwit he is. Course OI'm an opposite."

And soon you'll be a dead opposite!" Valiant Heart shot out his left hand and shouted an incantation, "Hado number 4, Byakurai!" and a white beam of lightning like energy shot from his fingers towards the opposite, Glum Heart.

The platypus opposite submerged before the lightning could hit her. However she had forgotten about Jolly who had built up speed and rammed her from behind, propelling her towards the shallows. "Love OI think it's toime fer you to buzz off!"

"Got that right!" Valiant did his best to charge into the shallows, wielding his sword and ready to strike at Glum Heart as soon as she was in range of his swings.

Lifting her beaver like tail she slapped it hard against the water, splashing Valiant with water. " 'ope that fancy big sticka is wata proof."

Jolly tackled her from behind once more, "Now that's not very lady loike. Woi are yer panties in a knot?"

Coughing she got her symbol glowing, "Dead set? It's fun! Jus cause OI'm a dead ringa fo' you in looks, OI don have ta act loike you."

Valiant brushed the grime that had come with the water out of his eyes and shouted, "Watch it, don't let her stare you!" He couldn't release his Zanpakuto or he would electrocute all three of them.

Jolly laughed, "Yeah OI figured out that paticula drum mate. But that got me wonderin..." Jolly too got his symbol glowing, "Wha would 'appen if OI stared 'er?"

"Good point, here I'll hold her for you," before Glum Heart could react, Valiant Heart shot out his hand again and called out the same incantation he had used on Delay Heart, "Bakudo number 1, Sai!" and suddenly Glum Heart found her arms locked behind her back as she fell to her knees in the shallows, her symbol's glow ceasing.

"You two dickhead's bettah let me go or OI'll-"

"Ey Sheila, now's not the toime to be given us an ear-bashin." Jolly rested his venomous spur on her back, "Now. You're gonna answer some questions fo' moi mate an me 'k?" His smile never faltered. With a defeated sigh, she nodded.

"Take your time, Jolly," Valiant said, getting out of the water, "She'll be stuck for quite a while." Valiant scanned the skies, just in case someone else showed up to ruin their fun.

"Roit. Where is our mate Valiant sensed?" With a sour look on her face, Glum Heart's eyes flickered to the lake. "In the deep end." Jolly looked to Valiant, "Keep an eye on 'er. OI'll be back in a jiffy." He waited for Valiant to move over before diving once more into the lake.

Valiant nodded and walked back into the shallows, grabbing and dragging Glum Heart out while simultaneously reinforcing the kido keeping her still. He drew his sword and glared at her, "Don't get any ideas, I may not like the idea but I will destroy you if you give me a reason to."

Glum heart rolled her eyes, "OI'm all jelleh legged." Jolly resurfaced with a pink jewel in his hand. "No oidea who OI ave but it's someone."

"Well with a gem like that, it could be Lotsa Heart, Cheer, or Love-a-Lot, bring it here and get it cleaned off," Valiant said.

Walking over to Valiant, Jolly didn't notice Glum Heart about to stare him. "Got you now buggah." Panicking at seeing the beam of light leave Glum Hearts tummy symbol, Jolly brought his hind leg around and stabbed one of his spurs into her back. Glum Hearts eyes widened as her tummy symbol went dark and she fell forward. Jolly looked stunned at what had just happened.

"Nice one, Jolly," Valiant said, "give her the poison spur eh? So let's see who you found."

He handed Valiant the jewel, still in shock. "OI didn' mean to. OI panicked."

Valiant placed a comforting hand on Jolly's back, "Don't think too hard on this, she's just a clone created to try and destroy you. My opposite was a hollow and I had to destroy it, so don't worry about paralyzing Glum here, if it weren't against what we believe in, I'd kill her right now. So who is this," Valiant began to rub the grime from the pink crystal, hoping it was Love-a-Lot. Valiant finished wiping off the crystal and blinked, a tear formed in his eye ad he held the crystal to his chest, "It's Love-a-Lot," he said, sounding both sad and relieved at the same time.

That put the grin back on his companions face, "Good on yer mate! Best news OI've 'eard all day!" He slapped Valiant on his back.

"Thanks," Valiant said. He carefully placed Love-a-Lot's crystal in his pocket then looked down at Glum Heart, "So what do we do about her?" he asked.

"OI figure we leave 'er roit where she is. Let the troppo sheila be someone else's problem."

"Maybe, but the thing is, she will be our problem if we do leave her here," Valiant had a thought, "you said you wondered what would happen if you stared her, why not give that a shot now, it could provide useful info."

Nodding Jolly got his smiling Heart with grape crown tummy symbol glowing and stared his opposite. Just as with the Care Bears, she shrunk down and turned into a mustard yellow crystal. Picking her up he wrapped her in his discarded shirt. "Don' need the world knowing we 'ave 'er."

"Good idea, who knows, maybe some of them can be reformed or turned into 'real' care bears," Valiant suggested, taking Jolly's hand, "but for now, we need to get moving." The two of them vanished as Valiant carried them away with a flash step.


	7. Shifting Dilemma

Shifting Dilemma

In No Hearts castle, Fauna and Blue had made it down to the lower levels; more importantly they were outside the potion room. Blue stood guard outside as Fauna snooped around. On his table were the vials where he had kept the DNA for the opposites. As she looked through the vials Blue came charging into the room, shifting into a cat as he did. "No Heart's coming." Together in cat form they hid under the table as the sorcerer came into the room.

No-Heart stomped into the room, "These opposites are almost useless! They can't even defeat those lousy care bears without help! And that one, Glum Heart, has even had her own ability turned on her, she's their captive now, what's worse she could be made into one of them!"

"Then maybe you'd like some additional help," Fauna's fur stood on end, she knew that female voice. No-Heart looked up to his window to see two Care Bears standing there, but not ones he was at all familiar with, one was wearing all black close fitting clothing, and one with black fur with what looked like cracked patterns all around it.

"More Care Bears!" No-Heart was practically flaming with rage, "I cannot stand this!"

"Before you blow your top," the male bear said as he and the female ninja bear jumped down, "Maybe you'd like to hear our offer of help."

"My name is Blade Star Bear, and this is my dear companion, Shatter Heart Bear," the female bear said, "And despite how we look, we're on your side. You see, we have a grudge against the Care Bears and we're a fan of your attempts, but hardly your success, so we were wondering if you'd like some help, we have experience against those Care Bears with special powers."

Fauna was growling as quietly as she could when she saw Shatter Heart and Blade Star come into the potion room. Blue was looking at her as if she had lost her mind. "Shhhh! Do you want them to hear you?"

Her amber eyes fixed on his, "They were in Wonderland!" Tail puffed up and twitching she used every ounce of restraint she had and continued to watch the exchange.

No Hearts eyes flashed red briefly, "If you are so knowledgeable about how to defeat them then why haven't you done so?"

Shatter Heart gritted his teeth, "We were taken by surprise and outnumbered by them last time! What's your excuse you who has been trying for so many years to defeat the Care Bears!"

Blade Star placed a hand in front of Shatter Heart to keep him still, "The reason is not important, we've been watching your latest attempt and quite frankly, we're impressed you weren't successful, but then again if those specially powered care bears weren't there, you might have won by now. We're here to offer our help to fix that little error with them."

No Heart thought on this and started to pace. "You bring up an excellent point. Very well. I will give you one chance to exterminate those extra thorny thorns in my side."

Shatter Heart started chuckling, "You give us a chance? HA! You act as though you're superior to us, if we wanted to take a shot at them we would have just done it, we didn't come here to get your _permission_ to try and kill them."

"You came here to offer your services to me! Therefore in some way you are deferring to my expertise! No one knows those bears better then I!" He bellowed down at the two bears.

Suddenly he calmed, "Except...BEASTLY!"

Within a heart beat the brown furred idiot came tottering into the room, "You bellowed boss?"

"Yes. These two are offering their help to destroy the Care Bears. See you give them anything they require."

Beastly looked confused, "Boss? I don't get it. Why are you having Care Bears help to destroy Care Bears? Aren't you going to-"

No Heart slapped a hand over his mouth, "Enough Beastly! I don't pay you to think!"

"He could be useful," Blade Star acknowledged, "despite a crippling ability not to think, this ball of fur seems to know how to sneak around undetected." She approached Beastly and gave him a look that made him cower, "I'd like to know everything you've learned about the Care Bears, as we need to know some things about them to help us."

"And maybe, when you send out your next ill-conceived attempt to get rid of the Care Bears who remain, send one of us with you, we've managed to bring those super powered ones quite close to death before," Shatter Heart added.

Fauna snickered and flashed her eyes briefly, "Except for me." Blue paled and hoped they hadn't noticed. Fauna tended to be reckless, and he was really hoping this wasn't one of those times.

Thankfully, by some grace of a higher power, no one heard. Shatter Heart and Blade Star followed Beastly out, to get the info they needed and maybe some expert help. No-Heart lingered briefly before tossing a book he'd been carrying with him onto the table above Fauna and Blue and departing, still muttering darkly to himself.

Emerging from beneath the table, Fauna jumped to the top and scanned the book cover. "I bet this has the answers we need." Gaining her human form she opened the book and began to flip through the pages. "Blue stop being a pansy and get out here."

"I'm not being a pansy. One of us has to be on look out." He gained his human form even as he said it.

"I wonder if this spell book has an index."

Fauna looked over the table of contents in the front. "There's a section on clone spells, maybe that will help." Going to it she saw 7 different spells and groaned, "Remind me to get No Heart post it notes for Christmas."

Blue scoffed, "Yeah. That will solve all your problems." Both went rigid as they thought they heard footsteps. "We don't have time for this. Let's just take the book and go, we can look it over from a safe location."

"My thoughts exactly." Blue shifted into a golden eagle and gripped the book in his talons. Taking to the air he flew out the window with osprey Fauna close behind.

Hunter, in his own human form, had approached the room, hearing the light conversation between Fauna and Blue, but not recognizing the voices all too well. Upon entering he spotted the two birds flying away through the window.

"Well what's this, either some strange birds off a migration route, or maybe a shape shifter or two trying to flee with secret info, let's find out," he said, shifting into a hawk, Hunter flew after the other two birds.

Blue deposited the book on the ground before landing next to it and gaining his human form. Opening the book he began to look through the spells Fauna had found. "So what exactly are we looking for?"

She snatched the book away from him, "Either the spell No Heart used to create the Opposites or a counter spell to reverse the effects of crystallization."

He took the book back, "Well then let me look. You haven't spent the last couple months reading old historic archives like I have."

She held her hands up, "Oh a thousand pardons oh researcher extraordinaire." Because they were bickering they didn't notice Hunter land nearby. Hunter landed softly, shifting into a rhino, no point in being subtle; they would know he was here soon enough. He lowered his horned head and charged at Blue and Fauna.

Feeling the earth tremble they both looked up to see a rhino charging at them. "Move!" Blue tackled Fauna, taking them both out of the path of the beast.

Fauna snarled as she caught his scent, "It's Hunter." She shifted into a velociraptor. "How did you find us?"

Hunter turned, shifting into a raptor himself, "Oh please, anyone could follow your bickering from a mile away," he charged at Fauna.

Hissing she slashed at him with her deadly hind claws. He avoided but barely. "Big mistake following. It's two against one fake." Hunter just hissed back, and slashed back at her, trying to bite down on her neck with his jaw.

Blue watched from a few yards away as the two raptors fought. He had been prepared to shift and help Fauna, but as soon as the two began fighting he lost track of which one the real Fauna was.

Ducking away from Hunter's teeth she pivoted on her foot to whack him with her tail. Hunter was knocked back briefly, but got back up and snarled, jumping onto Fauna's back and slashing at her with his hind claws as he tried to bit down on her neck again. Screeching in pain she turned into an anklosaurus.

The spiked armor on her back caused him to leap off. "Any time now babe!" Blue shifted into a ram and charged at the raptor. Hunter had just enough time to shift into a gorilla and grabbed a hold of ram Blue's horns.

"Nice try!" he grunted as he managed to use Blue's momentum to hurl him over his head and behind him. Fauna swung her clubbed tail at Hunter with a bellow. Blue shook his head trying to clear away the stars.

"Yup just like Fauna." Turning into a lion he leapt onto Hunter's back digging his claws in. Fauna shifted into a lioness and bit down hard on his flailing arm. Hunter grimaced in pain but shifted into an elephant, his sudden size increase knocking them off. Hunter trumpeted and tried to step on Fauna, who was in front of him.

Turning into a sidewinder she flew away from the foot. "Blue get the book to the others, I can handle him." She shifted into an elephant as well, ramming her head against Hunter and trying to force him back.

Knowing he would hate himself for listening, and not knowing why he did so, Blue regained his eagle form and took off for Terra Hearts burrow.

"Ok, send him away, I'll still get him later!" Hunter said, pushing back as hard as he could against Fauna, trying to force her back.

"Not while I'm living. Do you really think a cheap imitation like you is going to beat me?" Locking her trunk around his she tried to wrench him sideways. Hunter, suddenly went slack and let himself get pulled sideways, pulling Fauna down with him before shifting into a tiger and jumping at her, clawing at her side.

Fauna shifted into a hyena and fastened her jaws around his neck, biting down hard. She heard his roar get choked off, 'Just a little harder and I'll crush his windpipe.'

Feeling the pain, Hunter suddenly shifted into a porcupine, right inside Fauna's mouth. Fauna was forced to spit him out and he landed, shifting back to his human form.

"Face it, mare, you're inferior, just surrender and come back to No-Heart with me!" he gloated.

Turning human so she could pull the quills out of her tongue she coughed and sputtered before facing him. "Why would you want me to come with you. No Heart doesn't need two shape shifters." She smirked superiorly at him, "If No Heart gets me he doesn't need you."

This gave Hunter pause, "Yeah right! All he needs you for is to find out where you live, he even told me that it was as pity that I didn't inherit all your memories!"

Fauna chalked a point up to herself on her mental score card. She now knew the reason behind No Heart creating an Opposite for her. "And what, you think I'm going to just follow you home so we can all have some milk and cookies while talking about the super secret location of my home? You really are a cheap copy."

"Cheap! I'm not cheap," Hunter seemed to be faltering, "If I'm so cheap then why haven't you been able to stop me yet. And at least I don't have a stupid tattoo on my forehead!"

Her eyes flicked to his forehead, it was blank. "It's not a tattoo." She got her symbol glowing, "It's my variation of a tummy symbol." She stared a bolt of energy at him which he fell to the ground to avoid, "Sucks you don't have one too. Wanna continue this discussion about how I can't beat you or have you had enough?"

Hunter did his best to stand up, "And why do you care so much, why not just finish me now then if you think I'm so worthless!" he asked, both angry that he was losing but also genuinely wondering that very question.

She gritted her teeth, "As much as I would love to destroy you, it is forbidden by our gods Day Break and Night Shade for any of their charges to kill one another. Because you are my clone, your are illegitimately a Pegasus and covered by that rule." Hunter grimaced and attempted to shift, but was in too much pain to do more than turns his arms into a pair of bat wings before collapsing.

Fauna scoffed, "Like I said. You'll never be as good as me." Gaining the form of a red tail hawk she flew away from Hunter's unconscious form.

Hunter awoke a few minutes later, his arms still bat wings. He stood up and muttered, "She's wrong, I'll prove her wrong and get her for No-Heart so I can stand at his side instead of that stupid book woman," he took off using his wing arms to fly back to no-heart's castle.


	8. Beach Battle

Beach Battle

Loyal Heart dug through the sand of the beach, finally unearthing an emerald green crystal, "Looks like Illusion Heart," he said holding it up and putting it in a small sack he'd picked up along the way, "With Friend, Secret, Bright Heart, Gentle Heart and Brave Heart, that's six more so far." He turned, "Any luck Swift Heart?" he called over to the blue rabbit.

She looked up from digging her hole, "Nope! Looks like that's the only one here." She walked down to Loyal Heart making sure she kept him between her and the waves lapping at the shore. "That's so weird; I could have sworn I sensed somebody else on this beach."

"I know, I could have sworn I sensed someone else here," Loyal Heart looked around, then a voice got their attention.

"Maybe you sensed her!" They both turned to see Treachery Heart Dog and Delay Heart Rabbit standing further down, Treachery was holding a grey crystal that they assumed was Grams Bear's. Loyal Heart conjured one of his swords.

"Let her go, she's done nothing to any of you!" he barked.

Swift Heart crouched next to Loyal Heart, ready to take off down the beach and snatch Grams out of the opposite's hands. "I'd listen to him if I were you."

Delay Heart noticed her positioning and smirked, "Swift Heart speed won't help you here. This sand isn't going to give you any traction."

She smirked, "Says you!" with two powerful pumps of her legs she was off, charging at Treachery Heart. Loyal Heart followed suit, conjuring a mace and chain in his left hand and whirling it around as he charged at Treachery Heart. The pink dog smirked and conjured one of her shields, actually throwing it like a discus to land in front of Swift Heart where the sand it threw up briefly obscured the blue bunny's vision. Loyal Heart hurled the heavy end of the mace and chain at Treachery Heart, but she deflected it with another shield.

Swift Hear skidded to a halt and threw up her arms to shield her eyes from the sand. Before she could see, Delay Heart punched her in the jaw, sending her flying backwards. "Consider it pay back from when your boyfriend punched me."

Spitting the blood from her mouth she looked up at him, "Don't you know you shouldn't hit girls."

Standing over her he gloated, "I never do as I'm told." Drawing her legs back she kicked him in the stomach. With a grunt he too went sailing backwards.

Loyal Heart finally closed the distance with Treachery Heart and tried to strike at her, but it was clear that the opposite had gotten much better since their fight in the Kingdom of Caring. She easily deflected all of Loyal Heart's attacks and finally lashed out, striking him in the arm with the edge of her shield, which was quite sharp.

Loyal Heart yelped and jumped back, "You've improved!" he said, grimacing as he formed his two weapons into a spear and tried to stab her at a distance.

"That I have, but at least I don't have to hold onto my weapons!" Treachery jumped back and threw one of her shields which hit Loyal Heart's legs, knocking him down and forcing him to dissipate his weapon to avoid accidentally hurting himself.

Taking this opportunity, while her opposite was down Swift Heart latched onto Treachery Hearts arm. "Then allow me to take this off your hands." Opening her mouth she sunk her teeth into the opposite's pink fur.

Treachery Heart yelped and ended up dropping Gram's crystal, allowing Swift Heart to snatch it.

"I'll get you for that!" Treachery Heart said, taking a swing at Swift Heart with a shield on the opposite arm from the one that had been bitten.

Loyal Heart struggled to his feet, his legs in serious pain, and conjured a sword for both of his hands, unable to speak for the moment.

Bending backwards to avoid the shield, Swift Heart put Gram's crystal in the same pocket as Grumpy's. "Missed me!"

Before she could straighten however she felt someone grab her ears keeping her bent backwards.

Delay Heart grinned evilly down at her, "Let's see how flexible you really are." Pulling down hard on her ears he forced her back more causing her to yell in pain.

Treachery Heart grinned, "Good, hold her like that, let's make sure she can't use her legs to run away every again," she said, raising her shield to slice at her legs.

Loyal Heart raised his sword, which had begun to glow bright blue and shouted, "Don't you dare!" and swung his sword in their direction. A blue crescent shaped wave of energy flew at Delay Heart who still had a hold of Swift Heart's ears so she was sent flying with him. Instead of landing on the sand, they both landed face down in the shallows.

Pushing her self onto her hands and knees she began to cough sea water from her lungs "Gro *cough cough*ss."

Delay Heart laughed as he watched Swift Heart crawl out of the water, "I forgot you don't like water. Is it because you can't run here?" He grabbed her feet and pulled her back in, dragging her under once more.

Loyal Heart tried to move to get close to her, but pain, and another flying shield from Treachery Heart, kept him from going too far.

"So you learned a new trick, let's see how long you can keep it up!" Treachery shouted, about to throw another shield at Loyal Heart. But the blue dog was too fast and released another wave, striking Treachery Heart in the chest and knocking her down, severely hurting her and taking the wind out of her. Loyal Heart did her best to run to the two rabbits, but he was still hurting too much to gain much speed.

Swift Heart struggled wildly as Delay Heart held her under. Her heart was racing and panic was clouding her mind. He had called her out on her number one fear, being unable to run away. That was why she never went in the water and never learned to swim, she didn't like being helpless in the traction less substance. She felt her supply of oxygen running out and knew she would have to exhale. Delay Heart kept his grip on her, smiling widely the whole time.

Looking up he saw Loyal Heart attempting to get to him. "Too slow dog. By the time you get here she'll be dead." Swift Heart's body was already stilling.

Loyal Heart grunted, and stood up as much as possible, his weapons dissipating, "Then something will get to you first!" his symbol glowed and he fired a call at Delay Heart. The opposite rabbit easily dodged but before he could taunt Loyal Heart, the stare turned back on itself and hit Delay in the back, knocking him face first into the water. Loyal Heart did his best to jog, not caring about the small trail of blood coming from his legs as he made it to the water and reached out to grab and pull Swift Heart ashore. Swift Heart remained limp as Loyal Heart pulled her out of the water. A blue light had started to flicker from her pocket however and increased in urgency as it did so.

Loyal Heart recognized her situation, she had swallowed too much water and she was unconscious and not breathing. Thankfully Loyal Heart had learned CPR from Take Care so he put his hands on her chest and began to pump in a pattern, forcing her heart to start beating properly again.

"Don't die on me!" Loyal Heart said as he continued. He was rewarded a minute later when Swift Heart coughed up a bunch of water, but she still wasn't breathing.

"Hope you don't take this the wrong way," Loyal Heart said, he leaned over, pinching Swift Heart's nose shut and carefully breathing into her mouth. He did this a few times until finally he heard Swift Heart start to breath on her own naturally.

Opening her eyes with a groan she saw Loyal Heart leaning over her. Her eyes quickly darted sideways however to Treachery Heart, who was about to hit Loyal Heart over the head with one of her shields.

"Look out!" Shoving Loyal Heart aside, Swift Heart stared Treachery. It did little more then temporarily blind her and briefly stop her from continuing forward.

Loyal Heart summoned up a mace and swung down, smashing Treachery Heart on her head, and she fell down, knocked out.

"She must have a thick skull," Loyal Heart said, noting the lack of blood. He looked over to Delay Heart, who was trying to get up, but made it as far as the drenched sand before falling to his back and getting stuck in the squelching mess, "you all right now, Swift Heart?"

"Better then I was. And I'll be even better when I dry out." She was sitting up now arms crossed over her chest, shivering slightly. It wasn't from cold but from remembering the feeling of being held under. Glancing at Delay Heart she asked, "Would it be really bad if I say I hope he gets washed out to sea?"

Loyal Heart looked over in pity at Delay Heart, "Considering he just tried to drown you, I'd call it poetic justice," he said, "Do you want to just leave him here?"

"Yes I do." Getting up she went and grabbed him by his ears, "But we can't. Because then I'll always be looking over my shoulder and wondering if he's still out there." Pulling she started to slowly drag him towards the black cloud mobile parked on top of one of the dunes.

Loyal Heart looked down at his opposite and sighed, then began dragging the pink dog over to where Swift Heart was going too. "What should we do with them? Treachery is going to have a potent headache when she awakes."

"I have no idea. Maybe we can lock them up somewhere and then go back for them when we've fixed this whole mess."

"Perhaps, or we could try our calls on them. They can freeze us in crystals, maybe we can do something similar to them," Loyal Heart suggested.

She dropped Delay Heart's ears and took a step away from him. "Worth a shot," Getting her tummy symbol glowing she stared Delay Heart, feeling immense relief when she saw him shrink down and crystallize.

Loyal Heart nodded and used his call on Treachery Heart, but nothing happened, "Hmm, it seems that I can't do the same to her, then again No-Heart did say they can't use their own tummy symbols. That's why she's tried to kill me rather than imprison me. I do not think we should bring her with us though." He picked up the orange crystal that was Delay heart and pocketed it, "Can you help me drag her somewhere? I can use my powers to chain her up until we can come back for her." Nodding Swift Heart grabbed one of the opposite dog's arms.

Loyal Heart and Swift Heart dragged the pink dog over to a bunch of trees. Loyal Heart began to conjure chains and used them to attach his opposite to a particularly large one. After half a dozen chains were holding her in place, he sighed and sat down, tired form using his powers so much. He asked Swift Heart, "Can you run, or should we try and brave the skies. We can probably rest here if we find shelter. She won't be getting up even if she wakes up and I don't think they will send anyone over here for the next few hours at least."

She grinned at him, "Trust me a good run is exactly what I need right now." She held her paw down to him, in it was Grams' crystal. "Store this with the others and then point me in the direction you want to go."

Loyal Heart nodded, taking Grams' crystal and putting it in the small sack, "For now, I think you should take up somewhere secluded so we can rest, my legs need a chance to heal and you almost died back there. I had to give you CPR. Grumpy was worried too, his crystal was blinking when you stopped breathing."

She patted her pocket, "Trust me he wasn't the only one. I'll head for that stand of trees we passed about 10 miles back. Sound okay?" In truth as much as she wanted to run, she new 10 miles would be pushing it for her exhausted lungs. But she wanted to get as far away from the ocean as she could.

"Yes, that's good," Loyal Heart said, taking her hand as Swift Heart shot off.

Once they were among the trees, Loyal Heart managed to build a fire to help Swift Heart dry off. He was wet too and as it was a fairly cold night, his clothes weren't helping. Once the fire was built he stood up, "Excuse me, I need to get out of these wet clothes and shake myself off before I start to stink," he said turning and limping away until he was hidden from Swift Heart's view.

Taking Grumpy's crystal from her pocket she ran her hands softly down its faceted surface. "I really wish you were here right now. I've never been so scared in my life." She was surprised when a few tears splashed onto the gem. Wiping her eyes with a frustrated groan she put the crystal in her lap and held her hands out to the flames.

Loyal Heart returned later, having removed his soaking shirt, which he hung over a branch. His fur was noticeably dryer as he sat down and took out the crystals they had gathered, taking Delay Heart's crystal in particular, "Well this is who we have so far, I wonder how the others are doing," he looked over to Swift Heart, "You feeling all right? Are you cold?"

"A little. Tired mostly." She picked up Illusion Heart, "You know if we knew how to reverse the spell, I bet you could make us something good for dinner." The crystal gave off a slight energy that Swift Heart swore almost felt smug.

"That would be nice," Loyal Heart said. He looked over Delay's crystal in his hand, "what do you think we'll do with the opposites we manage to capture ourselves?" he asked Swift Heart.

She looked at the crystal. "That's a heavy problem Loyal Heart. One that I couldn't even begin to think about tonight." Taking a stick she poked at the fire.

"I understand, part of me wonders if we could, reform them," he suggested.

She shook her head. "If they truly are our Opposites then they can't be reformed. And personally I don't want mine to be, not after that."

"Maybe," Loyal Heart said, "But remember those two we ran into in Wonderland, Shatter Heart and Blade Star, they hated us even though they're Care Bears normally. These opposites may have opposite personalities to us, but they're still just children. They've only been alive for a few days and they were raised by No-Heart, hardly a good parental figure. They could be no different than Beastly, obeying his orders out of fear of death rather than any form of loyalty," Loyal Heart yawned as he packed the crystals back in the sack, save for Delay Heart's.

"A wolf raised by humans is still a wolf. There's nothing stopping him from acting as nature intended. Look at Fauna, True Heart and Noble Heart raised her to think like them and that went right out the window." She shoved the crystal away with her foot. "Put that thing somewhere, I don't want to look at it."

Loyal Heart pocketed Delay Heart and said, "True, but Fauna hasn't left for good, she still is willing to give us a chance, something the other Pegasus weren't willing to without her to insist upon," Loyal Heart lay down, "for now, I need to sleep. If you hear any screams of rage, that's probably Treachery Heart waking up," he added before he closed his eyes.

"Just what a gal likes to hear. The sweet serenade of vengeful curses to lull me to sleep." Curling up on her side, head cushioned by her arm she instantly fell asleep.


	9. An Unusual Day

An Unusual Day

Hunter landed back in the castle and focused, grimacing as his bat wing arms turned back to human arms. "I'll show Fauna, No-Heart needs me and I will show that I'm worthy to be at his side." He said, moving slowly to No-Heart's chambers. He stopped just outside to listen as he heard No-Heart speaking aloud to someone.

"I can't believe I ever listened to you. They are not succeeding in any thing I send them out to do!"

A female sat in the chair in front of No Heart. She was finger combing her black hair and admiring her green complexion in a small mirror. "It is not the spell that is to blame, but rather the wizard who cast it."

No Heart's eyes flared, "How dare you insinuate this is my fault! They are all useless. Even that Pegasus. I figured if he shared Fauna's DNA then he would share some of her craftiness, but he has proved to be the biggest failure of them all!"

'Biggest Failure!' those words rang in Hunter's head as he slumped against the wall. Was he just as expendable as the rest of the opposites? He stayed there for a moment listening to more of the conversation.

The woman got to her feet, "No Heart it is not my spells fault that they are not living up to your expectations. I told you they were unleashed too soon. You didn't even have that sorry excuse of an assistant give them information on their counter parts."

"I am also the one who released you from that ratty old spell book so I don't think you should be criticizing anyone."

She waved him off, "There is still a chance those other two will succeed. And if so you can dispose of all the others. We could always collect more DNA and try again."

When he heard the work 'dispose' Hunter suddenly knew that Fauna was right. No-Heart did consider him to be just a resource to be used and disposed of when his usefulness had run out. He carefully moved away before shifting into his Pegasus form and flying away. He had to find Fauna and Blue and talk to them. He didn't know what he would say but he knew they were the only ones he could possibly talk to about this.

Terra Heart poked her head out of her tunnel to sniff around for the others who had exited her tunnels a short time ago. She felt Defiant Heart approach and spoke up.

"So, how's everyone doing Defiant Heart?" she asked. The badger was taken aback, she may have been blind but her other senses often caught him off guard.

"Things are just fine, though everyone is worried cause the others haven't returned from looking for the rest of our crystallized family."

"I see," Terra Heart said, "What about Fauna, the shape shifter?"

"I don't know, she should be back soon, it's just you me, True Heart, and Proud Heart and her son until someone gets back," Defiant Heart said.

A golden eagle carrying a book landed nearby. Dropping his cargo to the floor he gained his human form, revealing to the others that it was Blue. "Here, we got the spell book No Heart used," kneeling in front of the book he began to flip through the pages.

"Welcome back Blue," True Heart said, heaving herself up from where she was sitting, careful not to overbalance with her pregnant tummy.

Proud Heart looked at the book and gasped, "That's the Spirit Book!" she declared, backing up a bit, "I remember it from when it controlled Nicholas."

"Didn't you say it had a spirit trapped inside it, I don't see anything like that," Defiant Heart pointed out.

Proud Heart turned around and gasped, "Where's Trust Heart?" she asked, panic stricken," I set him down for a moment to see Blue's return."

"Calm down, Proud Heart," True Heart said, patting her shoulder, "he's only just stated crawling, you'll find him."

"I hope so, excuse me," Proud Heart said, leaving to search for her son.

It was then Fauna returned, landing in her hawk form, beak open, the bird version of panting. "Got here...as fast...as...could." She slowly regained her human form, and bent over hands on her knees regaining her breath.

Defiant Heart blinked, "You're out of breath, are your arms tired?" he asked, trying to stifle a smile.

Terra Heart shook her head, "I'm not sure I could stand to fly, I know you're fine with it but I rely on contact with the earth to see, if I was up there I'd be completely blind."

Fauna sneered at Defiant Heart, "No no. I just completely overtaxed myself to get here as quick as I could but my arms are fine. Come over here and I'll show you." She massaged her biceps even as she raised a fist.

Blue grabbed her hand, "We think we found the spell. We just need someone to test it on."

"Great." Looking around she noticed Proud Heart was missing, "Where's Proud Heart?"

Defiant Heart look around, "She said she was going to look for her son, but he couldn't have gone this far and she should have been able to smell him out by now."

At that moment Proud Heart was searching frantically for Trust Heart. There was no way her son could have crawled this far so quickly, something was terribly wrong. This was confirmed when she pulled aside some branched and saw her opposite, the dark blue Depression Heart Cat, holding her son in his arms and grinning at her.

"You!" she hissed, "Put my son down right now!"

"Take it easy, I'm not hurting the lad. Not yet anyway." He bounced the little pup up and down in his arms. "He certainly takes after his daddy doesn't he?"

Proud Heart advanced, unsheathing her claws from her fingertips, "I said to put him down and give him back to me. He's my son and I won't let you do anything to him!"

Depression Heart hissed, unsheathing his own claws. "Now now, don't be rash. You take one step closer and I'll give the pup a taste of what his first immunizations will feel like. If you and your friends come quietly, you can have your son back." He held his claws over Trust Heart's face, causing him to wail.

Proud stopped dead, her ears lying flat across her head and her tail's fur stood on end, "Leave everyone else out of this, this is between you and me. If you want me then come and get me and leave Trust Heart out of this!" she pleaded.

"I don't recall that being an option." He traced a claw down the baby's cheek. "It's all or nothing mommy dear."

Proud Heart retracted her claws, but noted that Trust Heart was blocking Depression's tummy symbol, which meant that if he wanted to try and stare her he'd have to set Trust Heart down or move him aside. "All right, I'll go, but please just leave my son out of this, he hasn't done anything to you, if you want to get to anyone then go after Loyal Heart, he's the one that gave you that scar across your chest."

The cat opposite retracted his claws, "Offering the husband in place of your young. I see where your love lies." He motioned to Proud Heart, "Show me to your friends then."

"My love lies with both of them, but I know Loyal Heart would prefer to face you rather than let me or Trust Heart get in danger," she had to figure out someway to get him to drop his guard, she knew no one would lift a finger as long as the infant was in his clutches. She stepped away and motioned the way she had come, "they should be that way," she said, sounding very sad at what she was admitting.

As he walked towards Proud Heart he accidentally stubbed his toe on a large stone. As he cursed he jostled Trust Heart who then began to cry loudly. His gaze left Proud Heart as he hushed the infant. Proud Heart's natural cat reflexes jostled her into action and she pounced, scratching Depression Heart as hard as she could, hoping he'd release his hold on her son.

Trust Heart rolled from his captor's arms as he tried to counter the attack. He instantly turned his attention to the attacking female cat. "You were warned Proud Heart."

Proud Heart hissed back at the dark blue cat, "Never try to separate a mother from her child!" she turned and bit Depression Heart's hand as he tried to scratch her.

With his other hand he swiped her ears viciously, leaving deep gouges on her head. "Even if that child was never intended to exist?" He asked wickedly.

"And what do you mean by that!" she shouted back as she released her bite and slashed at his face, missing and instead scratching his tummy across his symbol.

Growling he felt the blood dripping down his abdomen. "You got pregnant by accident. You never wanted that baby and now you're stuck with him. You were so young Proud Heart, too young for motherhood." He taunted her before springing at her teeth going for her neck.

"You think that makes a difference!" Proud Heart said, jumping back to avoid his jaws, "Ok, so he was born because I was irresponsible but I love him all the same. Loyal Heart and I love each other and it was an expression of our love through which he was born. Yes I admit we let our hormones take over that night but if I could go back I wouldn't change a thing. Trust Heart is precious, the most important thing in Loyal Heart's and my lives right now and we wouldn't trade him for anything!" She pounced on Depression Heart, scratching at him as fiercely and as much as she could. Depression Heart tried to escape, but Proud Heart wasn't letting it happen. As he felt her claws swipe across his jugular and windpipe, he got one more look at her fierce features before his world began to go black. Depression Heart's Body fell back with a thud.

Proud Heart stepped back, blood from both herself and Depression Heart soaking into her fur. She'd killed her opposite with her own claws. She fell to her knees, shivering from the shock of it all. In her anger and fierce need to protect her offspring she'd done something she never thought she'd end up doing. Trust Heart's crying broke her out of her stupor and she got up and picked her son up, shushing him quietly.

"Hush now, Trust Heart, it's all right," she said soothingly, "he's gone now, he'll never hurt you again. Now let's go wash up before we go back and before this blood stains our fur all right." Proud Heart moved away to take her son to the nearby river. What she had shouted was true, it had been a mistake but if she could go back, she'd make that mistake again because she loved her son no matter what.

While all this was going on, Hunter had finally managed to catch up to Fauna. He landed some distance away shifting to human form and panting, he had still been mulling over what he had heard and he had to speak to Fauna or Blue, but he had to figure out how to approach them without being torn apart.

Fauna suddenly turned in the direction Proud Heart had taken, nostrils flaring. "I smell blood. And lots of it." Giving herself bear paws she started to head for the smell, "You stay here, and be ready."

As Fauna disappeared from sight Hunter appeared and approached the group. Defiant Heart recognized him and pulled out and extended his spear, holding it at the ready.

"What are you doing here!" he demanded.

"I-I want to talk," was all that Hunter could manage to say.

Blue was in his wolf form in the blink of an eye and leapt onto Hunter's chest, tackling him to the ground. His eyes were glowing blue, "You must have some kind of death wish if you were dumb enough to follow her here."

Defiant Heart was next to them in a moment with his spear point down next to Hunter's head, "He's right you know."

Terra Heart moved next to Defiant Heart and sniffed Hunter's face, "Human? Or are you a shape shifter too?" she asked.

"I'm a shape shifter" he said, turning his head away to avoid looking any of them in the eye, "I promise I'm not here to hurt anyone, I just want to talk." he said again.

Defiant Heart looked up at Blue, "I don't trust him, but if he wanted to attack I doubt he'd have let us pin him like this, let him speak then we can decide if we want to get rid of him."

"He didn't attack because he knew he was outnumbered. Why else would he wait till Fauna left?" He backed off Hunter's chest however, but stayed crouched by his head. "So what could have possibly happened in the last few hours that made you want to not try and kill us? I advise you to choose your words wisely."

Hunter sat up, "I went back to No-Heart's castle and I overheard him talking with the woman he said was from that spell book you have with you. I heard that he thinks of me as expendable, something he's just going to throw in the trash when he deems me having outlived my usefulness," he looked up at Blue, "Fauna was right, he just wanted me to get to her, and nothing else."

True Heart spoke up, "I believe him," she said, "I can see when people are being truthful. It's in his eyes."

Blue shook his head, "Of course she was telling the truth. No Heart has wanted her for years." He regained his Pegasus form, "So because you're no longer useful to your master, you think we are going to welcome you with open arms?"

"I don't know what to expect," Hunter said, "but who else would I go to? I don't have Fauna's memories all that well, but I do know that most humans would try to kill me once they found out what I was. Simply put I didn't know anyone else I could turn to, you and Fauna are the only other Pegasis I know and I figured these Care Bears would give me more of a chance to speak up than most humans would."

"He's got a point there," Defiant Heart said, lifting his spear up to rest on his shoulders behind his head, "So, what should we do, Blue? This is up to you and Fauna."

Blue stomped his foot, "Now we enter the oh so fun world of Pegasus politics. Because he is one of us, he is afforded some amount of protection when he is peacefully among a herd. As long as his intentions are true he must abide our rules. But that isn't the problem."

"I guess since you're the prince you'd know that better than we would," Terra Heart said.

"Let me guess, Fauna's going to be the problem, when she gets back," Defiant Heart said.

Blue nodded to him, "Yup. And short of me issuing a royal decree, I don't see her going along with any of this." He turned to Hunter, "Don't say anything to her when she gets back. Clear?" Hunter just nodded, he didn't move, there wasn't anything else he could really say.

At the river, Proud Heart was cleaning the last of the blood out of her and Trust Heart's fur. Now sitting in the shallows near where her clothing lay on the shore, holding a much calmer Trust Heart in her arms she let the water soothe both of them. The river was slow so the water nearby was still red from the blood that had washed off their fur and from her injuries that weren't that bad.

"Proud Heart I smelt blood is everything..." Fauna stopped as she watched the red tinted water floating down stream. "Are you okay?"

Proud Heart turned around and sighed in relief that it was Fauna, "We're fine now, sort of," she said, "but I had a run in with my opposite, Depression Heart Cat, and I-" her voice caught in her throat.

Turning her head to the side, Fauna caught the scent of more blood. It was growing colder as the seconds passed and began to smell stale. She turned back to Proud Heart, her face showing her confusion, "Did you kill him?"

Proud Heart stared crying softly and nodded, a lump in her throat preventing her form speaking for the moment.

Fauna strode into the shallows and wrapped Proud Heart in her arms, pulling her against her chest. "Easy Proud Heart, it's okay. I'm sure you had no choice." She rubbed her hand up and down her back, trying to calm her.

Proud Heart swallowed hard, "Y-you're right, he took Trust Heart and threatened to... so when I managed to get him free I couldn't control myself, I couldn't let him do that again so I killed him, with my claws," she wiped tears from her eyes and pointed in the direction of the slight blood trail, "his body's back there, I had to get Trust Heart away from all that and I-" she started crying again.

Fauna patted her back, "Hey...I get it. He threatened your baby; no one gets off easy from that." She stood, "I'll go take care of the body. And I know it's hard but try to calm down."

"Th-thank you Fauna," Proud Heart said.

When Fauna returned Proud Heart had climbed out of the water, dried off, and re-dressed, and was nursing Trust Heart who had been crying a minute ago from hunger. She looked up at Fauna as she returned, she was calmer now, and asked, "I'm guessing you didn't feel the same way when you first had to kill someone," she said, "because it was revenge for your mother."

She crouched down in front of Proud Heart, "At first I didn't. I had the adrenaline from the kills coursing through me and the taste of their blood fresh on my lips. I pictured my mother's cold body every time I ended one of their lives, and it drove me on." She paused momentarily, eyes focusing on her fiddling fingers, "Then the nightmares started a week later. I relived every scream, felt my teeth and claws tearing through flesh and ripping limbs off, feeling their life slipping away from them. So even though I don't regret what I did, it wasn't easy for me to think about afterwards." She met Proud Hearts gaze once more, "And no one but you knows that."

Proud Heart nodded, "I see," she knew that Fauna was confiding in her, and she wasn't about to tell the others about this, "Thanks for sharing, I promise I won't tell anyone," she looked down at her son who had finished nursing and lifted him over her shoulder, carefully burping him, "I think the others are probably worried about us, we should get back to them."

Fauna nodded. "I just want to make sure you know that what you're feeling is okay." They started to head back to the others.

"I do, but I imagine I'll have to deal with nightmares for the next little while too, but," Proud Heart looked down at her son, who was now asleep, "at least Trust Heart is safe from danger for now."

"And that's what gets you through them. Knowing what you killed for." Arriving back at the clearing Fauna saw Blue in his Pegasus form and the others standing around looking tense. "Did I miss something?"

Blue cleared his throat, "We have a guest."

"What kind of guest?" Her voice stayed low as her eyes scanned the clearing. They stopped when she spotted Hunter in his human form sitting by Defiant Heart. Her gaze snapped to Blue, "You've got to be kidding me!"

"He's not," Defiant Heart said, "Seems that Hunter overheard No-Heart saying he was going to get rid of him once he outlived his usefulness, he came to us because he didn't have anywhere else to turn. We've given him a good hearing but for now we're not sure if we should trust him."

Her eyes began to glow, "Of course you shouldn't trust him! He was created to destroy me. Just like all the others, and I don't see us harboring any of your opposites."

Blue straightened his shoulders and stood tall, "Fauna he is for the moment being truthful and has agreed to behave justly. As you know this grants him the rights given to all of our kind, including the protection of a herd when roaming from the Falls. As long as it remains as thus, you will honor our law."

Staring at him for a moment she bent her head and crossed both her arms over her chest, "I will honor our law." Straightening from her bow she gave Blue a fierce glare before pushing past him and standing in front of Hunter, hands on her hips, "So I guess 'I told you so' pretty much covers it right?"

"Yeah," was all Hunter said.

True Heart gasped when she noticed that Proud Heart was wounded; some of the scratches she'd received were still visible, "Proud Heart, what happened to you?" she asked, concerned.

"I had a run in with Depression Heart Cat, he tried to take Trust Heart so I, had to..." she trailed off. True Heart nodded in understanding, placing a hand over her pregnant tummy, she could easily understand how Proud Heart must have felt in the heat of that moment.

Defiant Heart's eye narrowed, "So Hunter here just shows up when Proud Heart's off alone and fighting her opposite, kinda convenient eh?"

Before Fauna could get angry, Terra Heart spoke up, putting a strong digging claw on Defiant's shoulder, "Hunter just got here and Proud Heart left to look for Trust Heart over half an hour ago, if anything was planned then Hunter would have been here sooner."

Defiant Heart sighed and lowered his spear, "I guess you have a point there."

Fauna looked at him, really studying him for the first time. He could easily be her fraternal twin in that they shared the same bone structure and skin tone. They differed only in hair and eye color and his features were more masculine. "I have one more question for you. How do we know you won't go back to No Heart if he offers you a place forever at his side?" Her lips were pressed tightly together as she awaited his answer.

"Because I don't trust him at all, I heard him speaking to that book lady without me hearing him and I know that he's more likely to just kill me once he doesn't need me anymore," Hunter said, "and since you've given me a chance that I never expected to get, I have no plans to go back to No-Heart."

She studied his face as he answered. Turning away she gained her wolf form, "I'm going to make sure no others are lurking in the woods. I'll probably be back late, don't wait up." Without waiting for a response she disappeared into the underbrush.

"Well that went better than I expected," Defiant Heart said.

Blue scowled at Defiant, "Better for you at least." Gaining his human form he once more went to look at the spell book.

Terra Heart smiled at Defiant, "At least you did give him a chance." She turned to Hunter, "My name is Terra Heart, Hunter, it's nice to meet you."

"Terra Heart Mole," Hunter said, "There's no opposite for you so I guess you're lucky. Where are the rest of you, I thought more of you escaped."

"We did," True Heart said, "the others went to look for the members of the family who weren't so fortunate."

"Well let's just hope they get back soon, I really need to see Loyal Heart," Proud Heart said. The others nodded in agreement.


	10. Reunited

Reunited

Swift Hearts ears picked up the noise of people approaching her and Loyal Hearts camp site, forcing her awake. She quickly crawled over to where Loyal Heart was sleeping, "Loyal, wake up! Someone's coming!"

Loyal shot awake, not bothering to yawn he prepared to conjure a sword, the a familiar voice calmed him down.

"Save your energy, it's just me and Jolly Heart," Valiant Heart said as he and the platypus appeared in the campsite. A moment later Snowy Heart and Cozy Heart appeared via a screen step.

"Well, good thing we're all here," Snowy said.

"Sheila!" Jolly opened his arms as Cozy Heart waddled towards him, a huge smile on his face. He remained this way even as Cozy continued past him and embraced Swift Heart.

"Wha jus 'appened?"

Cozy hugged him from behind, "Ssssorry Jolly, bessst friend beatsss new boyfriend." She kissed his cheek.

"OI'll take it!" Turning he hugged her back.

Valiant Heart hugged Snowy and then let go, "Well now tha the tearful reunion is over, let's see how we all did." Each of them turned out the collection of crystals they had gathered onto the ground and Valiant checked all of them.

The wolverine surprised them all by jumping a shouting, "Yahoo! That's all of them!"

"Wait, it looks like there's one extra," Snowy Heart said, checking the orange crystal, "It looks like your opposite, Swift Heart."

Swift Heart scowled, "Yeah I know." Breaking a stick she pushed around a leaf, "And let me tell you it was a fun time for all."

Valiant looked at the crystal, "So you got one too," he motioned to Jolly Heart, "Well we managed to get one too, Jolly captured his opposite, Glum Heart Platypus, when we ran into her."

Digging into his shorts pocket he retreved the mustard yellow crystal, "An she was one agro sheila if you ask me. OI had ta spur her afore she shut that cakehole O 'ers."

"So," Loyal Heart said, "We have all of our family members, plus two opposites."

"The big question is: what do we do with them now?" Snowy Heart asked, looking to the others for ideas.

"Well for sssssure we ssssshoulg get back to Terra Heartsssss burrow and sssssee if the othersss found a way to reverssse the crysssstalization." Cozy voiced.

"An OI guess we can keep the opposites loike this till we know fo' sure wha we're doin with them."

"That's true," Valiant Heart said, "And once the others are free then we can try to figure out what should be done with the opposites we captured."

"If you manage to get back to them that is!" the voice was one they all knew, they turned to face Shatter Heart and Blade Star in company with Flare Heart Fox. In an instant, Valiant had drawn his sword, Loyal Heart and conjured a spear and Snowy Heart had his bow at the ready.

"I don't know why you're here nor do I care," Valiant Heart said as he released his Zanpakuto, "Swift Heart, get everyone back to Terra Heart, we'll hold them here!" Snatching the crystals up Swift Heart shoved them into Cozy Hearts arms. She then grabbed Jolly's hand and Cozy Hearts free one and took off running. She had no problem getting as far away from those two as she could.

There were no words exchanged as Loyal Heart and Valiant charged at Shatter Heart and Blade Star, their weapons clashign together. Loyal Heart kept switchign his weapons around to keep the opposite and the two care bears from wonderland.

"It's payback time for Wonderland!" Shatter Heart shouted.

"Ziget Dich! Flamberge!" As teh fox, now with five tails, formed, Falre Heart declared, "This time we'll bring you back to No-Heart, Dead or Alive!"

The landscape flew by Swift Heart and her passengers in a blur. It had been a long time since she had run this fast and there was no way she was slowing until she reached her destination. Jolly felt himself getting motion sickness from the speed they were going at and had to close his eyes. Cozy Heart on the other hand was using all her concentration to hold onto the bag of crystals with one hand.

"I think we are almost there guys, just hang on!"

"Loike we 'ave any other choice love!" Jolly got out before he had to swallow to keep from hurling. A few seconds later she heard a bunch of very familiar voices and slammed on the breaks, skidding to a halt among those that had been left behind.

Everyone was surprised at Swift Heart's sudden appearance, but none were as surprised as Defiant Heart and Jolly Heart. The Platypus had been so busy trying to keep from throwing up that he hadan't noticed the stop and was hurled forwards, crashing into Defiant Heart Badger, who was stunned by the impact, before rolling several feet off of him to the base of a tree.

Terra Heart approached them and helped Defiant Heart up asking, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, just a bit dazed," Defiant Heart said.

"Swift Heart, welcome back, how did you do?" True Heart asked, relieved and concerned.

"We got everyone. They're in there." She pointed to Cozy Heart who was on the ground, clutching the bag tightly. "Cozy, you can let go now."

Realizing she still had her death grip the penguin laughed nervously, "Oh yea, hehehe."

Swift Heart shook her head and turned back to True Heart, "I hope you guys found a spell to turn them back."

Blue held up the book from a few feet away, "We think we have. All we need is a guniea pig."

"Well why not test it on Grumpy Bear then?" Defiant Heart suggested, "After a run like that I'm sure that's the best way to reward her," despite the possible implications, Defiant Heart wasn't trying to be funny.

Swift Heart put her finger on her chin looking thoughtful, "Well actually I did have my eye on a new foot spa, but I guess getting my boyfriend back is a good second choice." Taking Grumpy Bears crystal from her pocket she tossed him to Blue. He placed the crystal on the ground and opened the spell book. Glancing up briefly he looked to Fauna leaning on a tree a couple feet away.

She was still mad at him and hadn't spoken to him since Hunter had joined them, "You know the stronger the magic the better." Without a word she knelt down opposite Blue and glanced at the spell. Together they closed their eyes and chanted, hands hovering over the crystal.

"Ala chanam ina amoria luminoteso," Gold colored magic floated from Fauna's hands and navy blue from Blue's. Together they seeped into the crystals surface, causing it to glow. "Verora honesa chantilla conjoui gussue pronomeray," Their voices began to rise and the light from the crystal got brighter. "brirre, Brirre, BRIRRE!" On the last word the crystal blew apart in a blinding light that caused everyone to shield their eyes.

Being blind and able to feel the slight impact cause when the spell finishe, Terra Heart was the first to notice the extra bear in the crowd. "I believe your spell worked," the mole said.

As the light receded and the others regained their vision, they saw a slightly dazed Grumpy Bear sitting among shards of blue crystal. "Okay, I never want to do that again." 

Before anyone could say anything, Swift Heart had run to him and grabbed onto his shirt front with both hands, shaking him, "If you ever do anything so chauvinistic again I will personally kill you. Understand?" Whether he nodded in agreement or from Swift Hearts violent shaking was hard to say.

Fauna put a hand on Swift Hearts shoulder trying to pull her off Grumpy, "Okay Swifty I think he gets it. Don't kill him now, we just got him back." But as Fauna pulled her grip got tighter.

Grumpy managed to get a grip on her, "Swift Heart I get it, chill!" He stopped her motion, "I know what happened with you and Delay Heart remember? And I'm sorry but I'm here now." Before anyone else could see her tears, she buried her head against Grumpy's chest.

"Well the spell is great success it seems," Hunter said, speaking up from where he was sitting for the first time since Swift Heart returned.

"It is," Terra Heart said, "Please hurry and release the otehrs, I want to meet the rest of your family!"

"We wouldn't need to do it in the first place if it wasn't for you and your fellow forgeries." Fauna snapped at Hunter as she arranged crystals between her and Blue. Hunter said nothing, there was no point in arguing about that.

Meanwhile, Valiant Heart, Loyal Heart and Snowy Heart were hard pressed to hold back Shatter Heart, Blade Star and Flare Heart, made harder by the fact that none of them had fully recovered from their earlier fights.

Eventually, Valiant Heart called out, "All right, that's long enough, let's get moving!" He grabbed Loyal Heart's hand before he could protest and flash stepped away. Snowy, not wanting to be left behind, screen stepped after them, back towards Terra Heart's forest.

Flare Heart stomped her foot, "They got away, now what are we supposed to do?" she asked Shatter Heart and Blade star angrily.

"Yes, they escaped, but to be honest we weren't trying to defeat them outright," Blade Star admitted.

"Wait what?" Flare Heart asked, "then what is No-Heart going to say."

"Nothing, cause for all he'll care we all died here," Shatter Heart said.

As Fauna and Blue finished the last spell, both looked extremely pale and tired. Fauna fell forward onto her hands, "That took more magic then I thought it would." Blue could do little more then nod. All around them however the clearing was full of excited chatter as the members of the Care Bear family were reunited.

Noble Heart embraced his wife True Heart carefully, "Oh True Heart, thank goodness you're all right. How are you feeling?"

"Much better, my love, much much better now that you're back. I was afraid that Hugs and Tugs wouldn't be able to meet their father."

Similar couples were all embracing, Share Bear, Proud Heart, and Love-a-Lot were all a bit worried until Snowy Heart, Loyal Heart and Valiant Heart returned in a blurr, and all three were happy to be back.

Proud Heart was a bit nervous when Loyal Heart hugged her and he asked what was wrong. Proud Heart sighed and told him about what happened with Depression Heart.

Loyal Heart embraced her softly, "You were very brave, my lady. I admit even I do not like the idea of killing someone. Thank you for protecting our son."

Having been able to drag herself to a tree to lean against, Fauna smiled sleepily as she watched the reunions. She was happy to see her family was whole again. Allowing her eyes to close all the way, she felt her body returning to it's true form before she fell asleep. Blue had just collapsed where he was and was also asleep. Playful Heart picked up the two crystals that remained, one mustard yellow the other orange, "Looks like they missed two."

Cozy shook her head at him, "Trusssst me Playful Heart, you don't want thossse two coming back."

Valiant Heart managed to pull himself away from Love-a-Lot and spoke up, "Good point, those are Glum Heart Platypus and Delay Heart Rabbits, opposites. Now that we're all here we need to figure out what we should do with them, any ideas?" he asked.

"I'm up for Swift Heart's idea of letting Delay Heart wash out to sea." Grumpy called from where he and said rabbit were sitting.

Loyal Heart kept silent, at the moment he didn't feel like getting involved in this argument.

"To be honest, I'm not sure what we should do here," Noble Heart said, "Yes they were created to destroy us and they likely will be difficult to dissuade from that, but I don't think we can just kill them in cold blood."

"I had to k-kill my opposite with my own claws," Proud Heart said. Everyone who hadn't heard the story yet was shocked at what she said, "It-it's not something I'm going to find easy to live with."

Snowy Heart then suggested something, "I don't know about the others, but I seem to recall that Wonderland is missing a white rabbit, why not get a hold of the white queen and see if she can use Delay Heart for that?"

Swift Heart looked at him in genuine shock, "That is an awesome idea Snowy! He would have to get his memory wiped to do the job anyway so there would be no danger to us after he was revived."

"Sounds about right," Valiant Heart said, "When Blue wakes up I'll get to mirror and I'll try to get the queen's attention, then he can tell the queen how to release him and we can send him through. But what about Glum Heart, Jolly Heart what do you think?" the wolverine asked.

Jolly had a big smile on his face, as always, "Send 'er to me mum! Aftah all she' the bee's knees at mollycoddlein broken critters, an far as OI see, she's as broken as they come."

"That sounds like a great idea," Defiant Heart said, "How do you think she'll react to finding out she has a 'daughter'?" the badger couldn't resist a snicker.

"That's all well and good," Valiant Heart spoke up again, tossing Glum Heart's crystal to Jolly Heart, "and it would be nice if Glum Heart could be made to be like us, or even just a slightly awkward inhabitant of Earth, but what about the other opposites? We know they share the same weakness to our stares that we do to theirs so what should we do with that information, capture them or just outright destroy the rest of them?"

"I don't think we should make an absolute decision at the moment," Loyal Heart said, "Proud Heart was forced to kill her opposite in the heat of the moment, and Delay and Glum Heart were captured due to experimentation. I believe we should try to capture them if we see a chance to but only if it is wise to do so or we have an idea what to do with them afterwards."

"If it come down to me o mon en face, den she gonna be de one crystalizing dis time." Etienne told Loyal Heart.

"I agree" said Bedtime with a yawn, "We should try to render them helpless and if it comes down to staring them then so be it. Afterall, we know how to reverse it now so it's not like it's permanent."

"That's a valid point, but what about Flare Heart fox and Treachery Heart Dog, they can't stare and according to Loyal Heart, our stares don't have that same effect, not to mention their other abilities," Snowy Heart said.

"Then there's the fact that Shatter Heart and Blade Star have shwon up again, working with No-Heart," Valiant Heart said, "ugg, that arrogant midnight blue bear and her little glass marked friend, as if they weren't enough trouble before!"

Brave Heart tapped his chin, "Your stares may not work on them, but what if we somehow infused your weapons with care energy. It could at the very least weaken them."

"Possibly, but I think we should stop thinking too much and start acting. If Depression Heart Cat found us here, it's a good bet the others will too," Valiant Heart stood up, raising his sword, "I say we should strike against No-Heart now, hit him while he's still reeling before he has a chance to rally against us."

Grumpy scowled, "That's all well and good for those of you who have been free this whole time, but some of us aren't exactly at our best yet." Noble Heart nodded in agreement, "I know I could use a few hours sleep. And Fauna and Blue need to regain their strength."

Valiant Heart sighed, in the heat of the moment he hadn't considered that. It was Terra Heart who saved the situation by suggesting, "Well if I don't haev an opposite they wouldn't expect you to be underground. It might get a bit crowded but you could all come down to sleep in my tunnel tonight."

"That's very kind of you Terra Heart. It seems like our best option at the moment." Noble Heart turned to his family, "Okay gang, everyone underground." Champ raised his arm, "What about them sports fan?" He pointed to the knocked out Fauna, Blue, and the isolated Hunter.

"I assume they would not want me here while they sleep, just tell me where I should sleep and I will," hunter said, in a voice that showed he did not care what their answer was.

"On the contrary Hunter. You need to proove yourself to Fauna in a big way. I think you should keep watch while they sleep." Swift Heart suggested to him as she moved to the burrow opening, thrilled about their arrangements for the evening.

"I suppose you have a point," Hunter said, shifting into an owl and flying up to a tree where he would be able to spot anyone approaching.

Meanwhile...

"Could you at least explain to me what you mean by, cause for all he'll care we all died here'?" Treachery Heart asked as Shatter Haert sliced through the last of her chains.

"Well, the truth is, while we got some useful info from No-Heart, we didn't plan on his success," Blade Star explained.

"So, once we scoped out your powers, and saw they could be trained like ours, we though that as long as you want to destroy the care bears, why don't you join us, we could train you, make your powers even greater, and next time you fight those Care Bears we would make mincemeat out of them," Shatter Heart said.

"Well," Flare Heart said, "I would like to put that Snowy Heart in his place, but No-Heart needs us at hsi side?"

"You think he needs you?" Blade Star asked, "He sees you as little more than tools, to be discarded when your usefulness has expired, and considering you failed this mission too, that might be too soon for your liking."

"All right," Treachery Heart said, miffed, "it's not like we have anythign else to do."

"Good, then stand close," Blade star pulled out the mirror she'd acquired in Wonderland, "We're going to a secret training ground for a while," she threw the mirror to the ground, whci grew until they were all stnading on top of it, and they sank into its surface , the mirror vanishing after them.


	11. Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather

Around midnight Fauna began to stir. It was a full moon tonight and the silver light poured into the clearing making it easy for her to distinguish her surroundings. Getting to her hooves and seeing Blue sleeping a few feet away she sighed and stretched hers wings.

"I wish he would just butt out sometimes."

Above her, Hunter was still perched as an owl and heard her. He spoke so that she could hear, not a difficult task considering it was a quiet night. "And why is that, aren't you two a couple?"

Looking up she saw the owl perched in the tree she had been sleeping under. "Just because we're a couple doesn't mean he always knows what's best for me. Like today, when he 'decreed' me to let you stay here."

Hunter sighed and flew down, changing to human form, "There is so much I do not understand about things out here. If I'm causing problems here perhaps I should leave and go somewhere else."

"I'm pretty sure you'd cause problems anywhere. Like you said, you don't get how things work." She cast her eyes around to make sure the others weren't around. "So since you didn't cut my throat while I slept, I've decided to not beat you to a feathery pulp."

"I guess that's as much trust as I'll get out of you for the foreseeable future," Hunter said.

"You make it sound like I'm the bad guy here. I want you to take a little walk down memory lane to when we first met. You attacked me, not the other way around." She gained her human form as well. "So yes, it will take some elbow grease on your part to gain my trust. That's just the way I am."

Hunter remained silent for a moment, not really sure what to say, so he changed the subject, "So, what's it like, the place you live?"

"There are no words that can describe the Falls. But whenever I'm away from it, I never feel quite right. It's magical, plain and simple."

"Hmm, it sounds nice," Hunter said, "About how many Pegasus live there?"

"Why do you want to know that? So No Heart knows how many he has to destroy?" She eyed him suspiciously.

"Just curiosity," Hunter said, sighing, "what about you, are you some sort of princess because you're in a relationship with Blue?"

A laugh sounded from nearby, causing the two of them to look at Blue, "Haha Fauna a princess. Oh man that's a mental picture I'm never going to forget." He had been listening to their conversation and could no longer resist chiming in. "The only way she would have a royal title is if she were my mate."

"Which is never going to be anything more then a fairytale if you continue to tease and order me about." She crossed her arms and scowled at him.

Blue ignored her and looked at Hunter, "Our leader is referred to as Kingsire, and his mate is the Queendame. Any heirs are kinglings and queenlings as gender dictates."

"Hmm," Hunter thought for a moment then asked Blue, "Why are you giving me a chance, I may be a Pegasus but I didn't think clones fell under your laws. You know what, never mind, I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question. Maybe you could tell me more about the Care Bear Family, I only have what No-Heart told me about them, which is pretty biased information at best."

"For that I'm afraid you'll have to ask her." He pointed to Fauna, "She was the one adopted by them and I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to interact with them." He looked to Fauna, "And as for the answer you don't want, I'm going to tell you anyway because I think it will help. Even though you are a clone, you share Fauna's DNA which makes you real enough for our laws. And because you are made of the same stuff she is..."

Her eyes widened as she looked at Hunter in a whole new light, "You have a part of my mom and dad." A small smile slowly turned up the sides of her lips as she gazed at Hunter, "What would you like to know?"

Hunter managed a small smile as well, "Well what are they like, how do they live, and what did No-Heart mean when he said 'the Care Bears always ruin my plans'?"

"No Heart has been trying to rid the world of caring for years. But every time he comes close, the Care Bears always ruin it for him. And as far as what they're like, the best way to describe them is they go out of their way to help people, no matter the circumstance. Growing up it was like having a mess load of brothers and sisters who all wanted the best for me."

"Sounds like a real pain," Hunter said, smiling.

Both Fauna and Blue laughed as Fauna continued, "You have no idea!" Blue nodded, "She lived for the days when she got to get out of their and get back to us." Fauna nodded, "Even though they meant well, they were so unprepared for raising me. I just couldn't get my mind around some of their beliefs. Oh but don't get me wrong, they aren't all angels all the time."

"I guess everyone has flaws," Hunter acknowledged, "But I guess you still care about them, since you showed up to help them with...us," his voice trailed off.

"Well yeah, obviously. Just because we disagree on stuff doesn't mean I don't love them." She paused a moment, thinking, "I guess you don't have that kind of connection with any of the other opposites huh?"

"None at all," Hunter said, sounding subdued, "Considering what No-Heart said about me and the fact that the few memories of you that I have are fragmented and vague, maybe I'm flawed in some way, maybe because of this fractured shifting you and I can do, Fauna," Hunter shifted his hand into a lobster claw briefly then back to a human hand to reinforce his point.

"What memories do you have? Since you don't seem to know much, no offense, I'm wondering what you do know." Blue asked him.

"Very little, I knew Pegasus Falls existed, but not what it's like or where it is, I knew Blue was important and next in line for leadership of something, but not what or why he was important, and I knew how to shift, but not about the fractured shifting until that fight with you two where I only changed my arms into wings and nothing else. There's not much else that stick out, except that apparently all the people important to Fauna are colored blue, guess that means I don't have much of a shot," he managed a weak smile as he said that last sentence.

Fauna cocked her head to the side as she thought that last statement over, "You know you're right. I never noticed that before. Maybe its cause blue is my favorite color." She teased exchanging a look with Blue.

"Ha! We were meant to be!" Fauna smiled at him, thus ending their fight from before.

Turning back to Hunter she told him, "Not all of my nearest and dearest are blue. Thunder, Red Snout, and Frosty have no blue on them what's so ever and I love them more then I could ever say."

"Then there's hope I guess," Hunter gave a snort laugh, "So Blue can you fracture shift like Fauna and I can?"

He shook his head, "Nope only full body shifts for me. And other then going from timber wolf to Pegasus I'm not very good at holding them."

"Maybe you could practice more," Hunter suggested.

"Don't have the time." He leaned over to him and put his hand up by his mouth, "And between you and me, the shifting thing is her shtick and I wouldn't dream of out shining her. It wouldn't be in my best interest if you get what I'm saying."

"Yeah, I suppose not," Hunter said. He stared up at the sky for a minute before asking his next question, "So, what do you think I should do now?"

"What do you mean what should you do now?" She asked him.

"Well, I can't go back, that's for certain and when this conflict is over I don't exactly have a home to return to," Hunter explained.

Fauna and Blue exchanged a look, "Well I'd have to talk to Wind Rider and resolve some...security issues, but then I'm sure you could make a home in Pegasus Falls."

Hunter looked up in surprise, "Are you serious?" he asked hopefully.

Blue nodded to him, "It's just like I told you. As long as you remain loyal and abide by our laws you are considered one of us."

Fauna shoved him with a smile, "So don't screw it up."

"I promise I won't, thank you!" suddenly Hunter launched forwards and hugged Fauna, overwhelmed with sudden happiness.

She tensed up, thinking this was some kind of attack, but when no pain followed she relaxed and patted him awkwardly on the back, "Umm...your welcome."

Hunter backed off feeling a bit awkward, "Sorry, I'm not sure about things like this. So now what, I guess we should wait until the opposites are dealt with so Blue can talk it over with the others while we handle pest control."

"Blue could actually go back to the Falls like I've been trying to get him to do all along." Fauna looked to him and saw the scowl she had been expecting.

"You shouldn't have been gone this long in the first place. We can handle things from here. The only one who even stood a chance against me is him, so I'm totally safe now." He still didn't say anything as he thought it over.

"Right," Hunter suddenly yawned, tired form keeping watch not to mention the events of the previous day, "maybe I should get some sleep and we can decide what to do after that."

"You do that. There are some things we need to talk about." Blue moved away first, leaving Fauna and Hunter alone.

She nudged a dirt clod with her foot, "Guess I'll see you in the morning."

"Yeah, I'll see you in the morning," Hunter said, shifting to his natural Pegasus form and lying down to rest, "good luck, or whatever someone says in this situation."

Joining Blue she slipped her hand into his and rested her shin on his shoulder. "I know you need to practice issuing decrees, but not on me. I like you Blue, if you just talk to me about things..."

He kissed her, silencing her. "I know. But I needed you to realize what he was, under all of No Hearts influence. And true or false if I hadn't made you let him stay, he would have been kicked out in a heart beat."

She sighed, "True."

He rested his fore head against hers, "I thought it over, and I'll head back to the Falls in the morning, on one condition. First sign of trouble and you come for help. Deal?"

She nodded, before burrowing her head in his shoulder. They sat together for the rest of the night keeping watch over the clearing.

When morning came, Terra Heart Mole dug out, right near where Hunter was sleeping, or rather had been sleeping.

He snorted as he woke up, "Guess I should have picked another place to lie down. How's everyone else down there?"

"On, they're all right," Terra Heart said as she pulled herself out of the hole, followed by Noble Heart and True Heart, who was having cravings again.

"That's good to hear," Hunter said.

Valiant Heart exited next, holding the orange crystal that held Delay Heart, "Hey Hunter," the wolverine said, "Do you know where Blue and Fauna are, I'd like to get to a mirror to deal with this crystal ASAP."

Fauna whistled to get Valiant Hearts attention. She and Blue were sitting against one of the trees with Fauna wrapped in Blues arms.

Getting to their feet they walked over to the wolverine, "Blue's going home. He can take you to the Falls and you can use one of the scrying mirrors there."

"Thanks," Valiant Heart said, "I guess I should feel honored, I'm guessing non-Pegasis aren't usually allowed to see where it is. Should I blindfold myself or something?"

Fauna smirked, "Something like that. Or else the guards will be forced to kill you as soon as you enter because they'll think you have taken Kingling Blue hostage."

"Umm, I guess they're not all as well adjusted as you," should I just tie myself up while I'm at it?" Valiant Heart asked, honestly not sure if he should or not, looking at Blue and hoping for a serious answer.

"You do need to be blindfolded on the flight to the portal and deafened momentarily when I open it, but those we can do magically and they will fade once in the Falls. We take visitors very seriously."

"Ok then," Valiant Heart closed his eyes, "Just do it and take me along, I'd prefer to get the sensory deprivation over with as quickly as possible."

Fauna placed her hands on either side of her head, standing behind him. "This may be disconcerting at first. I'm giving you your hearing up to the portal and it will vanish on its own, but only for a minute or so." As Fauna got her hands glowing and began to chant, Valiant Heart found himself suddenly plunged into darkness. Next to him Blue regained his true form and Fauna lifted Valiant onto his back. "Be careful and don't do anything stupid."

Grinning she kissed his forelock, "I'll do my best." With a few flaps of his wings, he rose into the air and quickly disappeared from sight.

"He's quite brave to let that happen to him," Hunter said, shifting into his human form, "I guess we'll have a meeting or something when the rest of them wake up."

Fauna shrugged, "I guess, we tend to have a lot of those to figure stuff out. They are usually real boring until one of us livens them up," She smiled over at True Heart and Noble Heart, "Isn't that right?"

True Heart rolled her eyes and swallowed the berries she had in her mouth, "I'll admit not everything we discuss interests everyone, but we still need to talk about it."

"Today should at least be more interesting because it will be a battle plan most likely," Noble Heart added.

An hour later the rest of the Care Bear Family was up and eating, contributing various foraging or hunting skills, for the meal. Tenderheart tried to get things going.

"Well, Valiant Heart is busy so I suppose we should think about how to handle No-Heart's opposites, first I think-"

Swift Heart groaned and let her head roll back on her neck, "For crying out loud Tender Heart, do not tell me you are going to be in charge of these plans. You can't even win a game of Battle Ship." Getting up she began to pace, "We need someone who has an aggressive mind set to coordinate our attack. Not someone who's idea of spontaneity is using his Tuesday highlighter on a Monday." Her comment got snickers from more then a couple family members.

Defiant Heart spoke up, "Well, how 'bout our other leader," he said turning to the lion cousin, "Brave Heart, what do you think we should do here?"

Feeling put on the spot, Brave Heart gulped nervously and tried to collect his thoughts. Seeing this Swift Heart lent over his shoulder to whisper in his ear, "Just pretend like your telling the Cousins about our latest training. We have faith in you."

Taking a deep breath he stood tall, "We need to attack the Opposites on their home turf, where they wouldn't be expecting it. If we split our group into 4 squads, with one of our 'gifted and talented' members in charge, then we can sweep through No Heart's Castle and round up all them opposites."

Defiant Hearty rolled his eyes at Brave Heart's 'gifted and talented' comment. Loyal Heart spoke up, "I agree, though what about Proud Heart and True Heart?"

"I'm still a bit shaken," Proud Heart said, "And my opposite is dead so maybe I should stay behind with Trust Heart."

"I know I'm pregnant, but I want to see this through, I'll just be careful and stay back," True Heart said, sounding a bit nervous but convicted in her words.

"Me and Jolly don't have dance partners either so we can stick with True Heart for added protection." Swift Heart offered. Jolly nodded eagerly in agreement.

True Heart hugged Jolly and Swift Heart, "Thank you, both of you, I really appreciate this."

Loyal Heart put his hand on his wife's shoulder, "And I'll stay close by you at all times."

"Well that's enough planning," Defiant Heart said, standing up and wiping his mouth, "Let's split up and get this over with."

Fauna pointed to Hunter, "I'll keep an eye on my lesser half here, and I can have Brave Heart, Grumpy, Funshine, Playful Heart, and Harmony go with us."

Defiant Heart spoke up next, "True Heart, Noble Heart, Swift Heart, and Jolly Heart can come with me," he turned to Terra Heart, "You can come with me too if you want."

"All right, thank you," Terra Heart said, carefully kissing Defiant Heart on the cheek causing him to blush.

"It would be prudent for me to go as well," Take Care Bear said, "considering True Heart's condition and the fact that while you are a good fighter you are more likely to need medical attention, Defiant Heart."

"I'll come with you too," Bedtime added in.

"Me too, and that's the truth," Lotsa Heart said, raising his hand.

Illusion moved over to Fauna, "I tink I go wid you too fille."

"Me too." Said Wish Bear as she moved to join them.

"Glad to have both of you."

Snowy Heart and Loyal Heart nodded and quickly divided the remaining 16 members of the family between them in teams. Loyal Heart had Proud Heart of course and their son Trust Heart, Cheer, Champ, Friend, Secret, Grams, Anger Heart and Guidance Heart. Snowy Heart took Share Bear, Treat Heart, Birthday Bear, Love-a-Lot, Tenderheart, Bright Heart, Gentle Heart and Cozy Heart.

"Looks good," Noble Heart said.

"Then let's get moving," Defiant Heart said, conjuring a cloud car. Everyone other than the Pegasus followed suit and they climbed in, taking off for No-Heart's castle. Fauna and Hunter shifted into an osprey and a hawk respectively and followed after them.


	12. Turn About

Turn About

Passing through the portal and back to the Falls, Blue nodded to the guards on the other side who immediately bowed in respect. He waited momentarily for Valiant to regain his sight and hearing before he took them to the scrying mirrors.

Valiant shook his head as his sight and hearing returned, "Ugg that was unpleasant. All right let's get this over with before the others need our help," he said.

"No arguments there. We have to run to get there though so you'd better hold on tight." Feeling Valiant grip his mane Blue took off for the Scrying Caves as fast as his legs would carry him. After about 10 minutes they arrived at an opening in the base of a lone mountain guarded by 2 young Pegasis.

Blue loosed a loud whinny of greeting when he recognized one of them as Frosty, "I didn't know you were assigned this detail."

The albino colt smiled at him as he bowed, "Believe me it was not my first choice. Who's the hitchhiker?"

"Valiant Heart Wolverine, a friend of Faunas. We need to use the mirrors." Frosty nodded to the green and purple colt next to him who moved aside to admit them. Trotting past them Blue moved through a short stone tunnel before emerging in a large cavern.

The walls boasted large mirrors gilded in silver and purple frames. Blue stopped by one of the ones on the back wall, "All you have to do is say the name of the person you wish to talk to and the mirror will show them."

Valiant Heart slid off Blue's back, "Thanks, this won't take long," Valiant Heart took out Delay Heart's crystal and spoke to the mirror, "I want to speak to Mirana, the White Queen of Wonderland."

The remaining opposites who hadn't been crystallized or snatched away by Shatter and Blade filed quietly into No Hearts throne room. No Heart had summoned them for some reason unbeknownst to them. Currently he sat on his throne, drumming his fingers on the stone arm. Spirit waited next to him, tense in anticipation of what was to come. As the last opposite entered the room and Beastly shut the door with a cackle No Heart leapt to his feet.

"You incompetent useless creations are the biggest waste of magic I have ever committed!"

The Opposites cringed under the verbal onslaught and were too scared to reply as No-Heart continued.

"It was a simple task! Find the one I created you from and crystallize them! When you proved incapable of that, I gave you another chance to round up those who escaped. That was strike two. Now all of them are free once more and probably planning to come here!" He stood, eyes glowing a horrible red, right in front of Careless Bear, "CAN YOU GUESS WHAT STRIKE THREE IS?"

"Not st-stopping them," Careless replied.

He back handed her, "Yes! And..." He stopped for a moment in his tirade, noticing for the first time that some of his "special" Opposites were missing, along with the two from Wonderland. "Those double crossing good for nothing back stabbing furry menaces!" Clenching his hands into fists he yelled his fury.

The Opposites exchanged looks, they too had noticed the missing opposites as well as Shatter Heart and Blade Star being absent. They did not want to provoke No-Heart when he was this mad.

Beastly however was a different matter, he came tottering over to No Heart cackling, "Boss, you're gonna loose it. The shadows just told me they saw Hunter leave a few days ago and he was looking to join Fauna." He didn't notice the lightning gathering around No Hearts hands and continued, "And I haven't seen those new ones since they went to go 'take care' of the Care Bears. Looks like you're not having such good luck huh Lord No Heart..."

His eyes widened as he realized what he was saying, turning slowly he saw No Heart crackling with electricity, "Nnnnnnow boss, ddddooooonnn'tt do anything rash." He was backing away from him quickly. Lightning raced from his green finger tips heading for Beastly, the opposites, and Spirit. Beastly made it out the door and pulled it shut behind him. The opposites, however, were all hit hard by the lightning and in an instant were writhing on the floor in serious pain.

The Spirit merely deflected the lightning as the opposites all began to get up, "Maybe if you weren't so focused on their failures you'd note that the Care Bears are all heading here and that they had split into groups. If they get here we'll have the advantage and we can eliminate them before they do anything else too serious."

He turned back to the opposites who were slowly getting up from the floor, "This is your final chance to prove you are of use to me. Destroy those Care Bears, or I will destroy you!"

"Yes Lord No-Heart!" the opposites all said as they took off to take up positions to prepare for the arrival of the Care Bears.

"Shadows go with them! And tell Beastly to come here, I need his aid." They floated away to do his bidding. No Heart rounded on the Spirit, "You and I are going to come up with some way to aid the Opposites in defeating those cursed guardians of caring."

"All right, what did you have in mind?" Spirit asked.

His eyes flared, "I am asking you! You were imprisoned for the last hundred years in a SPELL book, you must know something!"

"I know plenty," Spirit said, staring him down, "give me time and I'll do something but if you have a certain type of 'something' you'd like me to do, just say so."

"Make it so the Opposites will not be defeated again. Or else this day to will be your last." He stood in front of her, his voice a dangerous hiss.

"There, now give me a moment, when I cast this spell the opposites will each gain some random ability, increased strength, speed, the ability to create weapons, but it will only last a short time then they won't have their special abilities anymore. It will be ready by the time our guests arrive."

Meanwhile, the four groups of Care Bears had split up en route to No-Heart's castle and each of them was at a different entrance. Defiant Heart's group was the first to land and he drew and extended his spear.

"All right, everyone ok?" he asked.

"A bit disoriented," Terra Heart said, "but I'm better now that I'm on solid ground again."

Swift Heart was stretching one of her legs up behind her back, wanting to be as limber as possible, "Doing super." Jolly gave a thumbs up to Defiant Heart as he watched Lotsa Heart jogging in place.

Defiant Heart looked back at True Heart and said, "All right, let's get moving, keep an eye out for the opposites and keep True Heart safe from harm," before entering No-Heart's Castle. Noble Heart stayed with True Heart, keeping at the rear of the group. Terra Heart was up near the front, following close to Defiant Heart using her nose's electroreceptors to keep track of where he was. She wasn't used to sensing tremors on paved ground, and couldn't on the parts of the castle made of cloud, so she was relying on him to guide her through the castle.

Swift Heart kept her ears twitching, listening for the littlest noise that would indicate they weren't alone. Lotsa Heart was doing much the same on the other side of the group. Jolly let out a small chuckle before whispering to Defiant Heart, "They're loike our own personal radar system."

At another entrance, Loyal Heart's group was also advancing. Loyal had one of his swords in his right hand and a chain with a heavy weight on it in his left hand, he kept his ears pricked up listening for anything. Proud Heart made sure that baby Trust Heart stayed silent, doing her best to keep him asleep. Anger Heart was in the rear with Guidance Heart, listening and watching for anything that might come at them from behind.

"Proud Heart was it really the best idea to bring the baby here? I mean this isn't like one of the family picnics." Cheer voiced as they walked the hall they entered in.

"Where was I supposed to leave him, back in the woods?" Proud Heart asked, "And I couldn't miss this not now."

"I won't stop you, but you could have stayed behind," Guidance Heart said, speaking up to be heard, "Your opposite is dead so you don't need to be around to use your stare on him."

"It's not to late dear, I could take him and watch him while you all are here," Grams smiled, "I am an excellent sitter after all."

Proud Heart stopped and the rest of the group stopped with her, "Thank you for your offer Grams, but you'll be needed here, and I don't want to leave him."

Loyal Heart dissipated his chain and turned to his wife, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "My lady, I would prefer if you were safe from harm. You've already done more than enough to help us and if you could find some place that was safe, we are not too far from the entrance to the castle, we could retreat for the moment so you would be able to find a safe route away from here."

Secret whispered quickly into Friend Bears ear. "Good idea Secret." She conjured a baby carrier decorated in yellow flowers that Proud Heart could slip on her back to carry Trust Heart. "This way you can keep him with you and Grams can have your back to make sure nothing happens to him."

Proud Heart nodded and carefully slipped her sleeping son into the baby carrier, zipping him in tightly before placing it on her back, "Thank you, everyone."

"Let's get going then," Anger Heart said, irritably, receiving some glares which he returned.

"Then we should proceed," Loyal Heart said. "There is something off here though we should have run into a shadow by now at least. I do not like this."

"Your right sports fan." Champs eyes darted around, "Those creepy shadows are usually all over these hallways."

So what does No-Heart have planned?" Guidance Heart said, shaking a bit from fear.

"Maybe to bore us to death," Anger Heart suggested sarcastically, "But whatever the reason we'll let him and his opposites have it when we find them."

Brave Hearts group was also discovering the lack of enemies and was becoming nervous. "We really should have run into something by now. I've never seen this castle so deserted." Brave Heart had his trusty flashlight in his hand, shaking slightly at the darkness around him.

"Your right for once, Brave Heart," Playful Heart said, "I mean it's not like No-Face to keep us waiting so long."

"He'll have something planned, believe me," Hunter said, in his human form for the moment.

Fauna suppressed the urge to question his comment. She did however move closer to Grumpy. "This doesn't make any sense. He can't resist flaunting his power. Why is it so dead?"

"Maybe he's finally wizened up and is trying something new."

The group remained silent for a little while as they moved on, not sure what to expect. "Pardon de pun bu' I thought dat would be obvious." Illusion Hearts opposite Obvious Heart Alligator became illuminated by Brave Hearts flash light. With her was Bleak Bear, Careless Bear, Jynx Bear, Discord Bear, Coward Heart Lion, and Serious Heart Monkey.

"Opposites!" Harmony said, "Quick stare them!" she said, getting her tummy symbol glowing. Hunter, having no opposite stood back for a moment waiting to shift if the need came.

Fauna was suddenly in her wolf form hackles raised and teeth bared. Obvious Heart just yawned, unfazed at all. "Why I never. You invade our home an dis how you greet us? Mon dieu no manners." She stared at them and her eyes began to swirl with red and yellow lights. "I tink I bettah educate you in de proper way to behave when a guest in someone's home."

Hunter watched, not sure what to think of the swirling eyes which didn't seem to be doing anything, "What's with the rolling eye effect?" he asked, looking to Fauna and the Care Bears he noticed that their symbols had stopped glowing and they and stopped still, "What the, what's going on here?"

Careless smirked nastily at him. "Well if you had bothered to stick around on our side, maybe you would have known that some of us got new gifts." She pointed to the ruby red gator opposite, "She is hypnotizing them to bring out their true animal nature. It will be most helpful in capturing the others. Shame it doesn't work on you."

"What?" Hunter noticed that Fauna was snarling viciously, the others were slowly starting to behave like animals, going so far as dropping to walk on their hands and feet, with the exception of Playful Heart who just started behaving like a real monkey. Brave Heart turned on Hunter and let loose a loud roar, sounding just like a real lion when he did so.

"They're acting just like animals," Hunter said, stepping back a couple paces.

"Well that is the general idea," the voice came from the spirit who had just arrived behind the opposites, "Though as I expected it doesn't affect you since you are an opposite yourself. I'm sure No-Heart will be pleased to hear that you led the Care Bears and Fauna into a trap. That is why you are here isn't it?" she asked.

Hunter looked down at the Care Bears and Fauna, now reduced to animalistic nature, their appearance all that remained of their care bear nature, Fauna looking and behaving just like a grey wolf, albeit a much larger than normal wolf. Hunter suddenly got a sinister grin on his face and bowed to the Spirit, "Of course, Spirit, and now we can use them against the others. The Care Bears care too much to hurt their own, even if their lives depended on it."

Brave Heart had gotten a little too close to Fauna for her liking and she lunged at him, snarling and snapping. He swiped a paw at her. "Easy now. You well get to let your anger out on the Care Bears soon enough." Spirit cackled as the opposites dispersed to keep their animalistic originals from killing each other.

"Well, I suppose we should take the new pets for a test then," Hunter said, "I know where one group of the Care Bears invading is, they landed near us led by Snowy Heart Fox. I remember the layout of the castle well enough, they're this way," he motioned in the direction the group would be coming from.

"Snowy do you have any idea where you are going? I think we are lost." Treat Heart could have sworn they'd past that gargoyle statue at least three times.

Snowy sighed and stopped, "I'm honestly not sure, this place is so… corrupt that I can't sense my way around here. It might be better if someone else led us."

"I could do that," Bright Heart said, "Just stick close and I'll figure our way through here."

"Don't have to worry about that Bright Heart. Thisssss place givessss me the creepssss." Cozy Heart moved closer to her fellow purple cousin.

Tender Heart sighed, "I knew we should have drawn a map of this place a long time ago."

Share Bear glanced around, "Well if what No-Heart's done before tells us anything, we know he's up to something."

"Yeah, and I feel helpless not being able to figure out what it is," Snowy Heart sighed, summoning his bow just in case.

What they didn't know was that a group of opposites was creeping behind them to cut off their escape when they tried to retreat from the group waiting for them up ahead. Gentle Heart was having a hard time staying calm, she kept doing deep breathing in order to keep her cool but she was genuinely terrified of what might be happening.

Love-a-Lot had a tight grip on Cozy Heart and Treat Heart and the three were staying very close to Snowy. The group stopped as a soft growl issued from the hallway ahead.

"W-what was that?" Gentle Heart asked.

"I don't know, but I know it's not good for us," Snowy Heart raised his bow and drew it back ready to shoot.

"Be careful now, wouldn't want to hurt one of your family would you?" Hunter emerged, a sinister grin on his face flanked by the feral wolf Fauna and feral Brave Heart.

Snowy gasped and his bow dissipated, "Hunter, what's going on, what's wrong with them?"

Illusion joined them, on all fours with his jaws wide open and hissing. "Etienne?" Love-A-Lot choked out.

"Sorry, they've left the building. Can we take a message?" Careless too emerged from the shadows in the hall in front of them.

As the rest of the feral cousins emerged into the light the others backed off slightly. "What did you do to them?" Share asked, scared and confused.

"Jus brought out dere true natures chere. Dis how dey supposed to act." Obvious Heart looked very pleased with herself.

Jynx snickered, "And you thought you'd succeed. Pathetic, Time for you to come with us." Cozy heart was backing away from them, eyes on Brave Hearts teeth.

"Don't bother trying to run," Hunter said, "You're boxed in, you'll just run into more opposites on your way out. And I know you, you won't harm your own family member," he raised one hand and spun it slightly, "Way I see it, you have four choices, fight and hurt your family members, be frozen in crystals again, become feral like them," he motioned to the feral cousins surrounding him, "or be our prisoners. I'm certain that No-Heart will have some ideas what to do with you. So what will it be?"

Tenderheart looked around, there wasn't much he could do so he sighed, "I don't see what else we can do, I say we go as prisoners. The other options are unthinkable."

Cozy yelped as Frigid Heart grabbed her from behind. "Very good thinking." Playful Heart hooted from over head where he was hanging form a wrought iron chandelier. Slowly those in Snowy Hearts group raised their arms in surrender.

Hunter smirked, "I wonder what No-Heart will say to this little prize here," he said as he led them away to No-Heart's chamber. Unknown to them, Swift Heart and Lotsa Heart's ears had picked up the sounds of the feral cousins, especially Brave Heart's roar and the two cousins had been listening in, aided by Swift Heart speed to get close without being seen.

"This is bad, and that's the truth," Lotsa Heart said.

"You said it, we have to warn the others," Swift Heart grabbed Lotsa's hand and they took off to do just that.

No Heart looked on in disbelief as the two groups of opposites and feral care bears and cousins escorted their prisoners into his throne room. "How did you manage this?" He looked to the unbound Hunter, "Ah so you have returned?"

"Yes, the prodigal son, as it were," Hunter said, forming his Pegasus wings out of his shoulders and dropping to one knee in a bow to No-Heart.

"As to how, seems that my little power boost gave Obvious Heart Alligator the ability to hypnotize the Care Bears and force their minds into a pure animalistic form. Apparently it works on Fauna too when she's in animal form, but not on Hunter or other opposites."

"So," Hunter continued, looking up but remaining crouched, "once we had some feral Care Bears, we simply put them on the forefront and when the Care Bears were faced with the prospect of hurting their family, they came without a fuss."

No Heart stood from his throne and stopped in front of Fauna, who was next to Hunter. His eyes flashed in triumph as he looked over his conquests. "Finally! I shall get what I want! A world without caring, and some new pets to amuse me!" Grumpy, Wish, and Funshine roared, but were quickly quieted by their handlers. No Heart gazed once more at Hunter, "You had us all fooled. Even her." Fauna growled at his extended finger. "I knew you could never be a good guy."

"It's too bad she can't tell us where Pegasus Falls is," Hunter said, "but Blue will arrive soon, and he'll no doubt be able to tell us, especially if his beloved's life is on the line. But for now I think a more pressing concern is the other Care Bears running around in here, we need to take care of them."

"Agreed." Conjuring a cage with his magic he directed the opposites to put their captives inside. "I will keep an eye on these ones while the rest of you sweep the castle and capture the rest!" His fists curled in his excitement, he had never come this close to succeeding before.


	13. Over the Line

Over the Line

Outside, Swift Heart had managed to gather the rest of the family, deciding it was best for them to get out of the castle until they could figure out what to do.

True Heart was beset with worry, sitting down and hugging her pregnant belly to herself, "I can't believe it, they shattered the minds of our family." Was all she managed to say before breaking down in tears. Trust Heart had started crying, seeming to know what was going on and Proud Heart did her best to calm him down.

"Hey guys come on we have to keep it together! If we get all hysterical it's not going to help anyone." Swift Heart voiced, hoping to keep things calm.

Loyal Heart sighed, "You are right, of course, Swift Heart, but the fact remains there isn't much we can do. We can't hurt our family members but they will no doubt be able to hurt us. How are we supposed to be able to face them and eventually free them of hypnotism?"

"Hypnotism?" the voice came from above as Blue landed with Valiant Heart on his back, who quickly slid off, "What's going on here?" he asked as the blindness and deafness spells had subsided once they were in sight of No-Heart's castle.

"Dude some of the Opposites got some power upgrades or whatever and they hypnotized some of the others and made them go all feral and then used them to capture Snowy's group!" Champ explained in a rush.

"Which others? Who was turned feral?" Blue asked, noticing that Fauna was absent.

Noble Heart sighed sadly, hating to be the bearer of bad news, "Funshine, Grumpy, Wish Bear, Harmony Bear, Brave Heart, Playful Heart, Illusion Heart, and… Fauna…"

"I knew something like this would happen!" He bucked in frustration, almost hitting Lotsa Heart and Secret Bear with his hooves.

Swift Heart placed a hand on his leg, "Well lemme tell you the next bit so you can get all your freaking out over with at once." He snorted forcibly but settled down, "Hunter went back over to No Hearts side."

Blue whinnied in his anger, "That slimy ba-"

"Okay, over there till you've calmed down." Swift Heart pointed a few feet away. As he moved off she addressed the group, "So who has any bright ideas?"

"Well I would be immune," Terra Heart said, "I'm blind enough that she couldn't hypnotize me if she needs eye contact."

"I could tear her eyes out of her head!" Blue yelled from his spot. "Not calm enough yet, keep trying." Swift Heart called back, "I think Terra's right, but how do you expect to take on all the others by yourself? No offense, but it won't be much of a challenge for them."

"I'll do it, I'll subdue them," Valiant Heart said, "I can use my kido to incapacitate them without hurting them."

"And what if Obvious Heart gets to you too, even without your powers if you regress to a feral state you will be vicious just like a real wolverine," Loyal Heart pointed out.

"Then I can take him." Blue was slightly calmer and beginning to listen to the plan.

"Or better yet, you can make me blind again, maybe deaf too just in case her voice has something to do with it," Valiant Heart suggested. Everyone stared at him as if he'd gone crazy.

Proud Heart had managed to calm Trust Heart down by nursing him and spoke up, "All things considered I'd rather sit out here," she said.

"Well maybe we should try and find the spirit and No-Heart, and hope they aren't guarded," Defiant Heart said.

"All right, then maybe you can explain how you're supposed to be any use if blind and deaf, Valiant Heart," Take Care Bear said.

Swift Heart raised her hand, "I agree with Take Care and also, I'm going with the frontal assault team because, even feral, no one in that castle can catch me."

Valiant Heart sighed and turned to Blue, "Forgive me for this Blue, but, I know the way to Pegasus Falls." Before Blue could reply Valiant Heart continued, "While sight and sound are important to me, I've developed my spiritual powers to the point that I can sense things around me very clearly when needed just by sensing the spirit particles and their dispersion in the air; I didn't notice until my sight and hearing were taken from me on these trips and as of yet I can't use my senses all that well unless I am forced too, that's how I can operate if blind and deaf."

Instead of responding, Blue drew himself up to his full height and extended his wings, ears lying flat against his skull, "If you reveal the location to anyone ever, it is well with in my right to kill you

Instead of showing fear or backing down, Valiant placed his hand on his sword hilt, "I won't ruin our friendship with posturing, even though a fight between us might not go how you plan, but you have my word of honor as a Care Bear Cousin and a Soul Reaper that I will never reveal the location to anyone, even if it costs me my life."

Swift Heart moved over to them, "As touching as this is, can we please get a move on to save Grumpy...I mean the others?"

"Yes, we can," Valiant Heart said, "So far the only part of the plan is for me and Blue to get rid of Obvious Heart, one way or the other, and then what, wait for them to find us once we're in there, cause you have to know they're not going to come for us."

"True, inside they have the element of surprise on their side, something they will not relinquish voluntarily," Loyal Heart said.

"Maybe that's where I can come in. I can lure them out of hiding and we could take them out one by one." Swift Heart offered.

"I say we just wing it." Defiant Heart said, "There's no reason to plan out things like we did before, that didn't help at all." The others nodded in agreement.

"Right then," Valiant Heart said, "Guess Blue and I will go in first, but go in faster," he grabbed Blue's leg and they vanished from Valiant Heart's flash step.

Defiant Heart extended his spear again, "Guess we should get going then, or should we wait a minute just in case?"

Swift Heart thought it over, "Let's give them a minute." She anxiously watched the castle and thought about what was going on.

Defiant Heart waited for a moment then said, "You know I've been thinking, if the opposites are stronger now I don't think it's worth it to try and capture them anymore. Sure Delay Heart is probably well on his way to being a new white rabbit, and will probably be stuck like that with no one to snap him out of it, and we plan to give Glum Heart to Jolly's mother to try and reform her, but with the power boosts they have they're probably too dangerous to try and reform anymore."

Swift Heart nodded, "I agree. And I'm sure a couple of the others will too. If we can get the hypnotized ones back, then we can..." she drew her finger across her throat.

"That would seem best, and whether through trap or by powers we need to destroy the opposites for good this time," Loyal Heart said.

Elsewhere, Blue and Valiant Heart reappeared at another entrance to the castle.

"Blue, I'm sorry for not telling you earlier, but I didn't really know until we got to Pegasus Falls and I'm sure the others would have disemboweled me if they knew."

He shook his head. "We could have wiped your memory so you wouldn't remember the way." He paused briefly, "And I may have over reacted...I've just been under a lot of stress lately and this whole Fauna gone feral thing isn't helping."

"I can understand that, Love-a-Lot being No-Heart's captive is worrying me a lot as well, but I promise I won't tell anyone where the falls are, besides if you erased my memory then I might not remember about my spiritual sensor ability, which reminds me you should probably blind and deafen me now. I'll be able to sense your larger movements so use body signals to communicate as I won't be able to hear," Valiant Heart said as he drew his Zanpakuto.

Shifting into his human form, Blue called up his navy colored magic and chanted the spell to make Valiant Heart blind and deaf once more. "Hope you know what you're doing."

Valiant Heart turned his now blind eyes to face Blue, "Remember, I can't hear you, but you might want to avoid animals forms so you won't be affected either. Now let's go and find Illusion's opposite before she does anymore harm," Valiant said, turning to enter the castle, going slowly as he adjusted to his senses. In his mind everything was different shades of blue that blurred together if he moved too fast. He'd have to adjust fast so he wouldn't be overwhelmed.

As they walked Blue tried to figure out what he was going to do if he couldn't use his animal forms. Reaching a fork in the road Blue looked from one way to another. "Crap" Waving his arms emphatically he then pointed with just as much gusto, trying to get Valiant to help him decide which way to go.

Valiant turned and looked at Blue, looking around at the two ways, trying to sense where someone might be. Eventually he pointed down the corridor where he felt the largest concentration of energy. Before going on he spoke up.

"Once I find and kill Obvious Heart Alligator, I need you to relieve these conditions, I can fight like this but I can't release my Zanpakuto because that would blind my senses." He then moved slowly down the corridor his sword at the ready.

Blue rolled his eyes, "He sure is bossy for a walking stuffed animal." His thoughts quickly changed to what he was going to do to Hunter when he got his hands on him.

Meanwhile outside Defiant Heart stood up from where he had sat down, "All right that's long enough, let's get going!" he said, marching towards the entrance. Loyal Heart nodded and followed suit, shortly followed by most of the others. Grams, True Heart, and Proud Heart with her son stayed behind. Now that they weren't trying to capture their opposites they didn't want to get caught in the crossfire, that and Grams wanted to try to spend time with True Heart and Proud Heart and Trust Heart while they had a moment.

Grams readjusted her shawl, "My, this has been an eventful day. I do hope none of the others get hurt while they try to fix things."

Proud Heart nodded as she nursed her son, "Me too, I couldn't bear it if Loyal Heart turned feral," she said, shuddering at the thought.

True Heart suddenly began shaking as she hugged her pregnant tummy protectively, speaking to Grams, "Mom, I'm scared."

Smiling she placed a paw on her daughters shoulder. "Don't worry. You've raised them all well, they can handle this. We just need to believe in them."

"I know mom, for us, and for our children," she smiled up at Grams, "And grandchildren, oof!" True Heart smiled, "They're kicking, want to feel, mom?"

Laughing she placed her paw on her daughters belly, "It's certainly been a long time since I've felt that. You're going to have quite the active pair of cubs on your hands."

True Heart smiled, "I'm sure we'll be able to handle it, though I hope you're available to baby-sit when Noble Heart and I need a rest."

"Of course! I would love to look after the little darlings. What kind of Grandmother would I be if I didn't?" True Heart smiled and hugged Grams

Inside the Castle Defiant Heart was in the lead, moving his spear point left and right, looking for any enemies he might encounter, "Gotta remember to shut my eyes if I see an alligator anywhere," the badger muttered to himself.

"If I see an alligator I'm going to kick her in the head so hard all she'll be seeing is stars." Swift Heart told him cockily.

"If anyone is fast enough to take her down before their hypnotized, it's you Swift Heart," Loyal Heart said, "but if you get to her make sure you finish her off, as much as I hate the idea of taking a life we can't let someone that powerful run amok."

Swift Heart cracked her knuckles, "I plan on doing it quick like a band aid and without giving it to much thought." Although she was cocky and tough on the outside, she was having serious doubts that she would be able to do the deed. Her plan was to remember the feeling of being drowned and use that emotion to fuel her.

"Whatever we do, we need to figure out how to reverse the whole feral thing, if it doesn't just get snapped out of when Obvious Heart Alligator is dead," Anger Heart spoke up.

"Well we can always try the Care Bear Stare," Friend Bear suggested.

"OI reckon that may work, 's long as it breaks tha hypnotism. Roit? If we can snap 'em outta the trance, they should be ace." Jolly agreed with Friend.

"What's a Care Bear Stare?" Terra Heart asked, a bit confused.

"It's a power we all have," Noble Heart explained, "we can channel our good feelings into our tummy symbols and let loose a beam that can help cure or heal those who have been affected in a way that makes them behave worse then they normally do; it's also a weapon that can hurt people like No-Heart."

"All you do is focus on a good emotion, which gets your tummy symbol glowing. Then you release the emotion and-" Lotsa Heart had gotten so into the description that he didn't realize he had gotten his own symbol glowing and released a stare. It flew a short distance away and hit Swift Heart in the back of the head. "Ow!" Turning she glared at Lotsa Heart. "Careful Lotsa, you don't want to give us away."

"Just keep your ears open, we never know when these guys will show up!" Anger Heart hissed, trying to keep his voice down.

"You know Anger Heart, when we get home I think you should talk to Take Care about being prescribed some uppers." Swift Heart retorted, just as quietly.

"Uppers!" Anger Heart fumed, but Guidance Heart put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down, Anger Heart, I don't condone drugs either but just try to stay calm until we're done," the blue raccoon said. Anger Heart sighed but agreed as they continued onwards.

Swift Heart stopped, ears twitching, "Do you guys hear that?" Before anyone could answer Playful Heart came running into the hall hooting happily. Jumping onto Anger Hearts head he attached himself to a statue and continued to chatter at them.

"Great, and I thought that monkey couldn't get any crazier," Anger Heart said, getting his symbol glowing he fired a call at Playful Heart, who dodged on reflex. Guidance Heart joined Anger Heart using her call to try and hit the feral Playful Heart. As they were distracted by Playful Heart, Illusion Heart slunk slowly towards the group on his belly, his jaws were open and he was going to latch onto the first person he found. So far that target appeared to be Noble Heart.

Terra Heart, however, felt the vibrations from the feral Illusion Heart and shouted, "Noble Heart, look out!" She turned and with a speed that belied both her blindness and shorter stature, she was able to move in and shove Illusion Heart back with her powerful digging claws.

"Playful is a distraction!" Champ called before jumping on Illusions back and wrapping his arms around his head. He knew he wouldn't be able to open his jaws now. Staying on however as the gator thrashed was going to be a different matter.

"Everyone quick!" Noble Heart shouted, "Care Bear Stare!" he launched his call, joined by most of the others, hitting Illusion Heart while Champ kept him busy.

As the lights cleared, Illusion groaned, "Homme, you tink dat you could lemme go?" He mumbled out of the side of his mouth.

Champ got off him, "Nice to have you back buddy."

Getting to his hind feet he seemed to remember something, "We need to go, de others gonna be here soon."

"Yeah, but what about him!" Anger Heart said, as he hadn't let up his attempts to stare down Playful Heart who was jumping form statue to statue avoiding the beam.

"Anybody have a banana? Swift Heart asked, ducking as Playful Heart leapt over her head.

"I didn't think we needed to bring food," Anger Heart said.

Guidance Heart had a sudden thought and conjured a plastic banana from her symbol holding it up, "But I'm guessing he's too excited to know the difference," she said, hoping to catch the monkey's attention.

As soon as Playful Heart saw the yellow fruit he climbed down form his statue. "Now!" At Noble Hearts signal they all stared Playful Heart.

"Okay, okay! I'm fine, you can stop now!" As the stares receded he snatched the banana from Guidance and bit into it. Realizing it was plastic he slapped his head and laughed, "Good one Guidance Heart."

"Thanks, I try," Guidance Heart said.

"Well that's two down, Swift Heart do you hear anyone else coming?" Loyal Heart asked.

"Not at the moment, I think we are safe to move on."

She turned to Playful Heart, "You don't know where the others are do you?"

He laughed nervously, "Sorry Swifty. Short attention span, he he."

Elsewhere, Valiant Heart had sensed the small bursts of energy that had accompanied the freeing of the two feral family members from their feral state. He spoke aloud to Blue, "It seems like the others found a way to help the ones Obvious Heart hypnotized. Hopefully we'll run into her first though."

"And not the other feral ones."

The hallway opened up into a larger space and standing in the middle of the room was Bad Luck Bear, Jynx Bear, Insomnia Bear, and Obvious Heart Alligator. "Surprise boys. Look like you got you' wish."

Valiant Heart didn't hear the taunts, not having his sense of hearing back, but he sensed their arrival. He turned his blind eyes to Obvious Heart and raised his sword, speaking one word through gritted teeth, "Die!" he charged, unable to use flash steps without temporarily blinding himself.

She stepped to the side and watched as he continued past her. "So I see you foun' a way to avoid my new talent." Blue braced himself fists raised as Jynx and Bad Luck approached him. Valiant Heart turned around; it was hard to see Obvious Heart's movements through his spirit sense so he slowed his pace, focusing his senses on her and advancing slowly on the opposite alligator, waiting for just the right moment.

Insomnia waited behind Valiant Heart, sandwiching him between himself and Obvious. "Ooo a sword, I didn't think you bears believed in killing." Valiant Heart took a deep breath, even if he could sense everything around him, his senses were still crude, he had to be careful and wait. He lowered his sword as if he was no longer ready to attack.

Blue looked at Valiant confused. Forgetting the wolverine was deaf he yelled, "Do something!"

Bad Luck and Jynx exchanged a look, "You heard him Jynx?"

"Loud and clear Bad Luck." The copper colored bear took a length of rope from behind his back and lassoed Blue, pulling it tight. All the energy left his body and he fell to his knees. "Looks like Hunter's advice about putting gold in the rope was right.

Jynx nodded, "He's useless now."

Obvious Heart smirked, "Dat jus leaves dis pain in de butt. Get him Insomnia." Together the two opposites charged Valiant Heart.

Valiant Heart suddenly turned around and whipped his sword up, Obvious Heart Alligator died with a look of shock on her face when she literally ran into the upraised blade of Valiant Heart's Zanpakuto. Valiant pushed the opposite's body off and turned to dash to where Blue was, now that the hypnotism problem was over being blind and deaf was a hindrance because of how unrefined his spiritual sense was.

Jynx and Bad Luck were badly shaken by seeing Obvious Heart killed. Insomnia too had halted in her assault. "Maybe if we hold still and keep quiet, he wont' find us." Bad Luck whispered to Jynx. Valiant Heart ignored them, instead opting to move to Blue and use his sword to saw through the gold infused rope binding Blue, and tossing it away from him.

"Please show me you can get rid of this spell, it's too hard to fight while relying on this crude sense of mine," he said, hoping Blue was strong enough to get up and help him.

As the gold rope fell away he slowly felt his energy returning. All he did was mutter "reversum" and the spell was lifted off Valiant. He however couldn't move just yet.

Valiant Heart blinked as his vision and hearing returned then looked at the frightened opposites, holding his sword up much more confidently than he had before, "Guess I should warn you, we've decided that you're not worth trying to save anyone, not after what the gator did to our friends." He held up his sword and shouted, "Electrify, Alastor!" releasing the blade into its electrified broadsword released form," he lowered the blade, "you have ten seconds," he threatened, glaring at them menacingly.

Bad Luck covered his head with his arms, "Don't! Please, we were under orders." Jynx hurriedly added, "We'll tell you whatever you want."

Valiant Heart looked at them, it was sad and even with his threat he wasn't a cold blooded killer. "Where are the captives being held?" he asked.

"In No Hearts throne room." Jynx hurriedly told him, hoping to keep him busy while Insomnia snuck up behind him, ready to club him with a fallen piece of stone. As she raised the stone to whack Valiant, Blue jumped on her with a roar as a velociraptor and bit her throat, cutting off her screams.

Valiant heard the attack behind him, and growled, raising his sword as the energy built up, "Give me one good reason not to fry you right here and now!" he shouted, his face twisted into an angry visage.

"Because we can tell you where to find the others! And what No Heart has planned!" Jynx told him frantically.

"Then start talking, before I change my mind!" Valiant Heart added.

"He has Funshine and Grumpy along with a few of the other opposites on the second floor and Harmony and Wish with their own set on the 4th floor. Hunter, Fauna, and Brave Heart he left outside the throne room as a last line of defense. He and Spirit are inside with the ones we captured."

"Good, thank you," Valiant lowered his sword and stopped putting energy into it, "Blue, what should we do with these two?" he said, motioning to Jynx and Bad Luck.

"Take them with us and use them as a shield, just like they are using the feral ones against us." Turning human he used the back of his arm to wipe the blood off his mouth.

"Good idea," Valiant Heart said, "and to make sure they don't try anything, Bakudo number 1, Sai!" Valiant's kido locked the two opposite's hands behind their backs, he grabbed Bad Luck's hands and hefted her up to be a living shield, "now let's go, and don't try anything."

Blue followed suite, picking up Jynx. Hesitating he called to Valiant, "I think you should grab the rope they used to bind me Valiant. It may come in handy."

"Good idea," he said, grabbing the rope, "for either Hunter, or Fauna so we don't have to fight her." He turned and began to march towards the rooms the opposites had directed them to. "Maybe we should try to meet up with the others on the way, now that the biggest threat is dead," the wolverine suggested.

"I don't think that'll be hard." Pointing ahead he showed Valiant Heart who had just entered their hall from the other direction.

Defiant Heart nodded, "Looks like your ears were right, Swift Heart and Lotsa Heart," he said, he noted the two bodies, "well the good news is the hypnotist is gone and we know how to save the others, a Care Bear Stare does the trick."

Swift Heart smiled shrugging, "You'd think you'd be used to that by now. Me being right all the time I mean." Cheer pointed at the two opposites all tied up, "What happened with these two?"

"We couldn't just murder them when they were scared and helpless, so we're using them as living shields, the same way their using our feral family members to keep us from fighting back," Valiant explained, hefting Bad Luck up in front of him, "Plus they told us where they others would be."

Noble Heart grinned, "Perfect! Let's go get them then."


	14. Endings and Beginnings

Endings and Beginnings

Serious Heart Monkey watched the group as they continued to look for her fellow opposites in the castle. She had been assigned to watch their movements and report on them using the headset that connected her to Coward Heart Lion. "They're all back together again...Unfortunately Jynx and Bad Luck are going to be making our life harder." She waited for the she-lions response, eyes never leaving the large group below her.

"I s-see," Cowardly Heart had a stammer in her speech that she couldn't shake, "We need to m-make sure they don't g-get t-too f-f-far. Wh-what are they doing now?" she inquired.

The monkey opposite twitched her tail, "They know where you all are situated. Looks like we have lost the element of surprise." A small smirk spread across her mouth, "I sure am glad I'm not you right now."

"S-so what are y-you going t-to do?" Cowardly Heart asked.

"I'm going to continue to watch, and not lift a single finger unless it looks like you are winning."

"F-fine, but N-no-Heart won't like that," Cowardly Heart shut off her communicator.

Hate-a-Ton shook her head, "Well that's just great. We were sold out by two of our own and a third just jumped ship. No Heart is going to turn us into a carpet for his throne room."

"N-not if we f-finish them off," Cowardly said, "and we st-still have H-Hunter."

"How do you know he won't switch sides again if things aren't going his way?" He crossed his arms, foot tapping.

"Because, you are my kind, and I've given you information that I knew, though I'm sure No-Heart would have told you that Pegasis can be poisoned by gold," Hunter had appeared amidst them, "relax, I know which side I'm on."

"What do you want? Aren't you supposed to be guarding the throne room?" Hardheart questioned him as she shoved Coward Heart off. The lion opposite had bumped into her when she jumped in surprise at Hunter's sudden appearance.

"No-Heart asked me to make one final round before they got here, wants me to make sure you're all where you're supposed to be," Hunter said, "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to tell No-Heart and Spirit that everything is ready," Hunter said, turning around and leaving them.

They had reached the 2nd floor and were looking for the group waiting for them. Blue stopped suddenly, nose flaring as a familiar scent came towards him. "It's Fauna, she's down there." He started heading away from the group. "Hold on, you need backup." Noble Heart cut him off before he could move farther away.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to stop Blue for long, he quickly divided up the large group. "Champ, you Loyal Heart, Illusion Heart, Valiant Heart and Anger Heart come with us. Swift Heart, Defiant Heart, Terra Heart, Secret, Playful Heart, and Guidance Heart go save Grumpy and Funshine. That leaves Friend, Cheer, Bedtime, Take Care, Lotsa Heart, and Jolly Heart to go to the 4th floor and deal with Harmony and Wish."

Everyone nodded and they split up, Valiant Heart in the lead with Blue holding their living shields out in front of them. Before too long they heard the audible growls of a wolf and slowed down. Sure enough, there was Fauna and Brave Heart, still feral and instantly alert, ready to pounce or charge at the approaching group as soon as they got the chance. Valiant gritted his teeth, "This could be a problem," he said.

"Very much so, unless we can hit them with a stare or call right away we cannot do anything to risk harming them," Loyal Heart added.

Blue eyed the two feral beings, "I don't think us hurting them will be a problem." Fauna barked a warning at the group to stay away. Handing his captive to Noble Heart Blue gained the form of a wolf. "I'll take on Fauna, we need speed more then power with her."

"As for Brave Heart, leave him to me," Loyal Heart conjured a club in one hand and a chain in the other, "Everyone else, stay back and stare them when you have an opening," he added. Valiant Heart said nothing, waiting for the right moment to do something.

"We keep dem from escapin homme." Illusion and Champ crossed their arms to look imposing and to keep Fauna and Brave Heart from escaping past them. Hunter's absence went unnoticed. Blue pricked his ears forward and held his tail erect hoping the sign of dominance would cause Fauna to back down. She hesitated for only a moment before snapping viciously and charging him.

At that some time, Brave Heart gave a roar and pounced on Loyal Heart, who was forced to dodge aside and swing at him with the weighted chain he had conjured, hoping to snare him and keep him still, but missed and was forced to swing at Brave Heart's next attack with the club he was holding, but not hard enough that he might cripple him. This fight would no doubt prove taxing.

Seeing an opening, Valiant Heart charged past the four fighting and into the throne room. No one bothered to stop him. Inside he found No-Heart waiting for him, with Hunter and the Spirit standing to his right. Valiant snarled at them and said.

"So finally here now, you two have a lot to answer for, and you especially Hunter, I can't believe we trusted you!" he said, pointing his sword at Fauna's opposite. Hunter gave no reply.

Fauna was keeping low to the ground and snapping at Blue every chance she got. For the moment he was avoiding her teeth by the skin of his. As she snapped at his foreleg, he used the moment to jump on her back and pin her to the ground. Illusion Heart sent a stare at her, hoping to knock her back to her senses. However at the last moment she threw Blue off her back into the stare, which sent him flying.

Loyal Heart was having trouble with Brave Heart, who was faster than he expected. Loyal tried one last time to snare him with his chain, but missed and suddenly found himself pinned under Brave Heart, who snarled and moved in to finish off the dog. At that moment, Champ stared Brave Heart, knocking him off Loyal Heart and smacking him into the wall. A recovered but dazed Brave Heart muttered.

"What was that truck's number?"

Loyal Heart got to his feet, "At least he's back to normal," he said, before turning to face Fauna.

No Heart glared down at Valiant Heart, "I knew those Opposites wouldn't be able to finish you off." Spirit lifted a glowing hand to the cage where his family members were being kept, "I'd suggest you choose your move wisely, or someone else may suffer."

Valiant Heart lowered his sword, what else could he do. The Spirit smiled and said, "Hunter, do your duty."

"At once," Hunter smiled wickedly, his hand turning into a wolverine's clawed hand and he slashed hard, striking down the Spirit who fell to the ground, her hand no longer glowing and in severe pain.

Everyone present was shocked and the Spirit shouted, "What are you doing!"

"What I was planning from the start!" Hunter shifted into an arctic wolf and leapt on the Spirit, "How do you think I felt, seeing my older sister reduced to that feral state? I'll make you pay for that!" he said, viciously attacking the Spirit. Before No-Heart could attempt something, Valiant Heart was in his face.

"Sorry, I'm your problem now!" he said, slashing at him with his Zanpakuto.

Fauna's fur was all puffed out as Loyal Heart, Champ, Blue, and Illusion Heart advanced on her, they had boxed her back against the wall of the hallway and were getting ready to stare her once more.

"Just chill Fauna it'll be-agh!" She had leapt forward and bit Champ hard on the arm. He continued to yell as she began to drag him backwards. "Get her off!" Blue rammed her hard from the side and Illusion snatched Champs legs, pulling him away as soon as she let go. A loud yelp was heard from Blue as Fauna latched onto his ear, shaking it like a chew toy.

Noble Heart stumbled back while calling his magic to his hands. "You think I am going to let you win when I've come this far?" He shot red lightning at Valiant Heart, to keep him at bay.

Spirit continued to shriek as Hunter attacked her arms up to protect her face. Between her howls of pain she muttered a spell that fused her finger nails with acid. She then raked them down Hunters face, leaving 4 burns. "Get off me you filthy beast!"

Valiant deflected the lightning with his sword and raised it over his head, "I'll stop you regardless, Rensei Tokkan!" he swung down and released the familiar lightning drill at No-Heart.

Hunter grimaced and jumped back, wings sprouting from his wolf back allowing him to fly above the Spirit as he finished shifting into an eagle, the scratch marks remaining on his face, "You're the filthy one, you won't go back to your prison this time, I'll make sure of that!" He rose up and dove at Spirit, talons striking down at her arms in an effort to cripple her fighting ability.

Conjuring a yellow shield she used it to keep Hunter away from her arms. "As vallia bindero nium!" A golden ring of light wrapped around Hunter's body, pinning his wings in and causing him to fall to the floor. No Heart attacked the lightning drill aside and gripped his pendant with one hand while pointing at Valiant with the other. "Hold still you annoyance." He caused the stones under Valliant's feet to glow, holding the wolverine in place.

Outside, Noble Heart tossed the golden rope to Brave Heart, "Get this over Fauna and she'll hold still long enough for us to stare her."

Nodding he quickly turned the rope into a lasso, "Good thing I always wanted to be a cowboy huh Noble Heart? Remember when I-"

"Just toss the rope Brave Heart or Blue is going to loose his ear!" Loyal Heart yelled at him. Letting the rope fly it settled on Fauna's head, slipping around her neck as she released Blue's ear. With a whimper she lay quietly on the ground allowing Illusion and Champ to stare her. When she remained laying on the ground Blue frantically told them that they had to get the rope off her. Illusion snatched it quickly off and Blue trotted over to her as she got to her feet.

"You okay?"

She nodded but faltered and fell sideways into Blue, "Maybe not just yet. The gold needs to wear off."

Sounds of fighting came from the throne room. "Should we go in and help Valiant Heart?" Champ asked.

"Yes, let's go now," Loyal Heart said, conjuring a sword in his hand as they pushed the door open, just in time to see Valiant's legs get trapped and Hunter get captured by the golden ring. Hunter shifted into a mouse and scurried away form the ring before it closed around him again, before shifting into his arctic wolf form again and biting Spirit's leg. Valiant aimed his palm at the ground and called out:

"Hado 31, Shakkaho!" the blast hit the floor, blowing away the stones holding him down but knocking him back as well. Seeing the others he smiled and spoke as he stood up and retrieved his sword, "Welcome to the party then."

"Hope you saved some favors for us." Fauna growled. She and Blue joined Hunter, each biting onto Spirits legs, who desperately called to No Heart for help. He ignored her however, having bigger problems on his hands.

He saw the bound Jynx and Bad Luck Bear, "I gave your fair warning." Pointing at them he sent lightning their way and fried them to a crisp.

Loyal Heart shook his head, "You are a despicable monster," he raised his sword and swung at No-Heart, sending a wave of blue energy at No-Heart. Valiant added to that, firing his "Byakurai" white energy beam from one of his fingers at the evil wizard. Hunter backed off briefly and leapt at Spirit's face, jaws open wide.

Before No Heart got hit by the attacks he turned into a purple bat. "You may think you have won this time, but I took into account that you would come this far." He flew out of the small window in his throne room, "Now Beastly!"

Cackling Beastly threw a switch that covered the castle in purple magic. Landing next to his minion, he laughed maniacally, "They will be trapped in there forever! Nothing can break out of that force field."

"So what should we do now boss?" "Leave for a few days and work on my new castle. Then I can finally begin my assault on the world and rid it of love and caring at last!" Turning into a tornado, he whisked up a screaming Beastly and flew away, without so much as a second thought to the Spirit or remaining Opposites.

As the force field went up, Hunter's blows landed and finished off the Spirit, ending her magical reign forever. Hunter landed on the ground next to her lifeless body, panting form exhaustion and unable to speak.

Loyal Heart observed the magical barrier on the outside of the window, "It appears we are trapped in here, I hope the others are all right. At least my lady, True Heart, Grams, and Good Luck aren't trapped in here," Loyal Heart lamented.

Illusion was looking at the charred bodies of the two opposites that had been their shields. "Dis is not good, hommes. We not gonna last long cooped up like rats in here."

"That is true, but if all else fails I can use my full power to try and force the barrier open," Valiant said, placing his sword on his back, "for now is everyone all right?" he asked.

Blue was panting happily, wincing occasionally as Fauna licked the ear she had only been moments before trying to rip from his head. Champ grinned, "I'd say they're pretty okay." The bite wound on his arm had been bound by Noble Heart. "Loyal Heart, Hunter, you okay?"

"I am feeling well, all things considered," Loyal Heart replied.

"I'm good, I guess," Hunter was still in his arctic wolf form, his head bowed as much from shame as exhaustion. He looked up a bit guiltily at Fauna and Blue before looking away.

"Could someone let us out of here please?" Treat Heart called from the cage. She and the other captured family members were very eager to get out.

Seeing a chance to improve their opinion of him, Hunter shifted into a giraffe and carefully opened the door of the cage, offering to let them use his neck as a slide to get out.

Tender Heart went over to Brave Heart, "Glad to see you are acting normal again. Has anyone gone to make sure the others have been turned back also?"

"We were just about to." Fauna and Blue regained their human form and waited for Hunter as the others filed out of the throne room.

As soon a Love-a-Lot hit the ground, she dashed over to and hugged Valiant Heart, who hugged her back, "Thank goodness you're all right," Valiant Heart said.

"Same to you, I saw you fighting, you were good," Love-a-Lot said. Valiant smiled and kissed her.

Hunter regained his human form and joined Fauna and Blue; he averted his eyes and said, "Hey, good to see you're back to normal Fauna," he said.

She smirked at him, "I can say the same to you. I don't remember much from when I was, less then myself, but Blue filled me in on some of the finer details."

"Oh, what did he say?" Hunter asked.

"I told her how we thought you had betrayed us but it turned out you were just putting on a front." He told Hunter bluntly, arm securely around Fauna's waist.

"Imagine my disappointment when I couldn't do an 'I told you so' dance." Fauna added.

"Why couldn't you?" Hunter asked, "I didn't really have much of a choice at the time, I was surrounded by feral Care Bears and you, if I'd tried to run I would have been torn to shreds," Hunter said, "I still feel bad about it though."

"If it will make you feel better I will do the I told you so dance." She began to move her hands from side to side while saying "Told ya so." over and over. Stopping after a few rounds she faced Hunter, "But you came through in the end and that's all that matters." Turning to leave she seemed to remember one last thing, "Oh yeah," she tapped his chest with her finger, "if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I will tear you to shreds."

Smiling she patted his cheek with her hand and walked from the room. Responding to the stunned look on Hunters face Blue sighed, "Yeah, I know. She's exhausting."

"Yeah, I noticed," Hunter said, "So I guess you've forgiven me for the time being, we should go get the others and figure a way out of this place." Blue motioned with his arm for Hunter to follow the others out of the throne room. There were already murmurs from the hall as some members of the other groups were returning. It took a while but eventually everyone had gathered together again, restored to their normal states but with some injuries inflicted by the opposites or the feral bears.

As headcount was taken, Noble Heart asked, "So, did any of the opposites live?"

"None," Snowy Heart reported, "Other than Hunter, Glum Heart, and the new white rabbit they were all destroyed, though no one saw Serious Heart, Playful's opposite."

"She probably slipped out as soon as she saw things were going badly." Playful Heart commented, looking ashamed, "That's exactly what I wouldn't do."

"But slipped out to where?" Bright Heart asked, "For all we know she could be trapped in here with the rest of us."

He shrugged, "That could be. But I think we should focus more on getting out and less on what my opposite may or may not be doing."

Brave Heart nodded, "I agree. Has anyone checked the other exits and made sure we are really sealed in?"

"Good Point, guess Snowy Heart, Swift Heart, and I should check them, cause we're the fastest," Valiant suggested, before using his flash step to do just that.

"Probably the best course of action," Snowy said, using his screen step to go off and check another exit.

"Back in a flash!" She saluted them with a roughly bandaged forepaw before taking off to search the lower levels.

After a few moments of waiting, all three returned, "The exits I checked are sealed by the field," Snowy Said.

"Same here. Proud Heart, True Heart, and Grams are thankfully outside the field," Valiant Heart added.

"Nothing down there but some seriously huge spiders." Sliding to a stop next to Grumpy she shuddered as he pulled cob webs off her ears.

Fauna crossed her arms, "Well that's great. How are we supposed to get out of here?"

"We could try a stare on the field," Bright Heart suggested, "Grams, True Heart, and Proud Heart could help from the outside."

"And if all else fails," Valiant Heart said, "No-Heart probably doesn't know how strong I can get, I could use my Bankai to try and force the field open, or just destroy it."

Blue cleared his throat, "Umm I may be new to all this but, don't you think No Heart would have figured you all would use your stare on the force field so he would have made sure it was resistant to that."

"He's has a point," Gentle Heart said.

"Well then, I guess brute force may be the only way," Valiant Heart said.

"Perhaps," Loyal Heart said, "If that fails we may be out of options."

"Did anyone ssssee if Proud Heart, Gramsssss, or True Heart could hear usss through the barrier?" Cozy Heart inquired the scouts. When they didn't respond she continued, "Maybe they sssaw what No Heart did and know how to reverssse it."

"Well then, let's go meet them and see," Bright Heart said. Valiant nodded and led them towards the exit where the three in question had been left.

Grams Bear was pacing in front of the barrier when the others arrived. "Oh thank goodness you're alright."

Noble Heart nodded, "We're fine for now, but if we can't get out of here, that won't matter much."

"Did you see how No-Heart created the barrier?" Bright Heart asked, "Do you know if you can reverse the process?"

"Well, we saw him cast a spell the fly off," Proud Heart said, "I couldn't make out what exactly he was saying, sorry."

"Well it's magic," Valiant Heart stated bluntly, "think I should just try to break it open?" he asked.

"Sure give it a go. We have no other ideas at the moment." Brave Heart told him.

"All right," Valiant Heart said, "stand back then," he began to concentrate as energy gathered around him, "BANKAI!" he shouted. The energy around him burst and Valiant was there in his Bankai form, "Akuma Dai Raitonigu, Alastor. All right, here goes," he said. He delivered a strong punch to the barrier, it didn't budge, "guess I'd better go all out, get back from the barrier!" he said, backing up and bit before charging and starting to spin like a drill "AKUMA RENSEI TOKKAN!" he slammed into the barrier, spinning and electrified, pushing against it and hoping this would work.

Fauna, Hunter, and Blue had felt the hair on their arms rise as the strange magic grew around Valiant Heart. All three of them remained at the back of the pack, wanting to stay as far from the energy as possible. As Valiant hit it with his final assault, Fauna saw a series of cracks spreading upward from the point of impact. She also felt the shield pulsing as it was being attacked. "Everyone hit the floor, it's gonna blow!" She herself dove, gaining the shape of a turtle and pulling herself into her shell.

Everyone hit the deck, Hunter changing into an Armadillo and curling up as the force field finally gave out. As the dust cleared they saw that the barrier had fallen apart, but there was more. As the barrier started to fall apart the castle started to shake.

"This place is coming down, let's move!" Anger Heart shouted.

Snatching up the turtle and armadillo on either side of him, Blue ran out the hole in the barrier. Swift Heart remained behind as long as she could to make sure all of her slower family members made it to the exit safely. Once outside, they all quickly conjured cloud cars and took off, heading to where the ruins of the Kingdom of Caring were.

Swift Heart shook her head as she looked down at the cracked buildings, "What a mess. It's going to take us weeks to fix all this."

As they landed, Bright tested the ground, "At least with all of us here it appears that the ground is completely stable."

"And it will take weeks to fix, but I guess we all have to pitch in then," Anger Heart said, his voice tinged with mild anger at this fact.

"Well first, we should repair my clinic, so we can get medical attention and rooms if needed," Take Care said.

Nearby, Hunter and Fauna had shifted back to their human forms. "So," Hunter said to Fauna, "Now what do we do?"

"We go home." Blue told him. "If I'm gone any longer Wind Rider is going to have me memorize stories from the archives again."

Fauna smiled and sighed happily, "Home sounds good. Tomorrow I'll probably come back to help rebuild things around here."

"Home," Hunter said, thinking. "So, can I still go with you two?" he asked.

"That was the plan. Fauna can help you make a nest and introduce you to the others in your herd," Blue said.

"Thanks," Hunter actually smiled, shifting back to Pegasus form, "lead the way I guess, I don't know how to get there."

Fauna shifted back as well, "Lets see if you can keep up." Whinnying she took to the air with Blue hot on her heels.

"Hey wait up!" Hunter took off after her, shouting to her, "As long as we have the trip, I want to talk about something with you two!"

She craned her neck around to look at him, "What's on your mind?"

Hunter caught up, "Well, it's my name. Hunter the opposite of Fauna, meaning animals, I'm not so sure I'd be well received, and to be honest I want to forget about the whole 'opposite' thing, sis, or should I just call you Fauna?"

Fauna felt a blush rise in her cheeks. Blue snickered, "Awww Fauna has a baby brother. Sooooo cute"

The blush vanished as he teased her. "Call me whatever you want. And I think that's a good idea to change your name. Did you have one in mind?"

"Well, that white wolf form I was in felt the most natural, guess it's cause you're a grey wolf, so I guess 'White Wolf' would be a good last name, but can either of you suggest a first name?" Hunter asked.

"Seems like white wolf is your cover shape, I'll explain that more later. As for a new name, I think it should represent this life change you've made." Blue told him. He looked to Fauna, "What do you think?"

Fauna was silent for a moment while she thought it over. "What about Renegade?"

"Renegade hmm, I like that thanks sis," The newly christened Renegade Whitewolf smiled, "So, you wanted to race sis, let's go for it!"

Flattening her ears to her skull she pulled ahead with a large flap of her wings. Blue watched the two going neck and neck and let a small smile slip out. He knew Hunter...er Renegade would help to heal a part of Fauna that he nor any of the others could. As Fauna's triumphant yell of: "Ha! Maybe next time pipsqueak." sounded from ahead, he knew they had reached the portal and flapped his wings to catch up.


	15. Final Resolutions

Final Resolutions

About two weeks after they had escaped from No Hearts castle and defeated the opposites, Jolly found himself flying home to Australia to check on how his opposite, Glum Heart was adjusting to living with his mother. As he flew over his mom's refuge he waved at her before landing the cloud mobile.

She beamed down at him before embracing him, "G'day Jolly. Moi aren't you lookin the bee's knees."

His grin widened, "Ta mum! Illusion 'Earts been 'elpin me work out. 'Ows the new nipper doin?" She pointed over her shoulder where Glum Heart sat on the steps leading up to the house, drawing in the dirt with a stick. "Moind if OI go 'ave a yack with 'er?"

"Suite yerself. OI'll be wid the cassowaries when yer done." Patting his cheek she moved off.

Jolly moved to Glum Heart, "G'day sis."

Glum Heart looked up at Jolly and sighed, "Oh, hi Jolly Heart," she said, sounding depressed as she had since she had been released from the crystal and heard the news of most of the opposites' deaths.

"Woi so glum?" He laughed, "Pardon moi pun. OI thought you woulda been happy here. It's noice an quoiet. An that view sure is a beaut eh?" He swept his arms around to indicate the refuge.

"I guess, it's nice an peaceful here and the scenery is nice, but..." she stared up at the sky, "It just causes me to think about too many things, the other opposites, except for Hunt-Renegade, and Serious Heart. Renegade was able to change, ironically because he didn't get enough from Fauna to be a clone so he was able to become his own person," Glum Heart sighed, "So that leaves me, Glum Heart Platypus, cared for by my opposite's mother." She looked up at Jolly Heart, "I haven't seen you since you dropped me off here, so tell me why did you spare me instead of destroying me like you did with the others?"

"Well we were gonna spare the others too, but they weren't to keen on conforming. An OI felt bad 'bout spurring you, so OI figured OI owed you a secon' chance. Plus, moi mum is ace when it comes to rehabilitation, OI thought she could do you some good." He sat next to her on the step.

"Well I guess she's done some good, I've been keeping busy and I haven't tried to attack you yet, then again," she looked down at her now bare tummy, "I guess this change of heart changed me some way. My symbol vanished and I feel different. Maybe it's the atmosphere or maybe it's cause I've changed on the inside. Another question, why do you keep calling me 'sis'?"

"Took a page off Renegade on that one. He's been callin Fauna that since we got back. Figure he's got a point an all, seein as we share DNA an all." He whacked his forehead, "Bloimee OI'm a berk." He dug around in his pocket for a moment, "Renegade wanted me ta give you this. Seemed to think it would help you somehow." He handed her a letter in a plain white envelope with her name on it. Glum Heart took the envelope and opened it, reading the letter she found inside.

_"Dear Glum Heart_

_I was wondering how you're adjusting to life now that you're not under No-Heart's thumb anymore. I'm adjusting to life in Pegasus Falls but it's taking some doing, the other Pegasus were a bit wary of me at first but it seems that a vote of confidence from Kingling Blue and my sister Fauna, who will probably be a Queenling soon if she isn't considered one already, has won some of them over.._

_But anyways, the reason I'm writing is to give you some advice, mostly you need to forget about the whole opposites thing and to help with that you need to change your name, if you can't think of an appropriate Care Bear name then try a human one. Take your Brother's advice too, he knows how to cheer people up if you let him._

_Sincerely, Renegade Whitewolf"_

Glum Heart looked up from the letter, "So, I should choose a new name then," she echoed, passing the letter to Jolly Heart so he could read it too.

He glanced over the letter, laughing when he read the part about Fauna being a Queenling. "If Blue popped the question now OI think she'd run as fast as 'er hooves could take 'er. But OI do agree 'bout you given yoself a new name." He smiled widely at her, "An course OI'm always 'appy to take a burl at gettin people to laugh."

"Well it's worth a shot," Glum Heart said, "any ideas; I don't really know what I should call myself."

"Well dunno if OI mentioned this or if the ol' lady did, but moi real name is Julian. So maybe to honor me an show 'ow much you love me you could go with Juliana." He teased nudging her with his elbow.

His mom's laughing drew their attention to her. "OI only need one of you runnin round sonny. An even though you share DNA, your personalities are quite separate." She leant on the railing by Glum Hearts head, smiling down at her, " 'Ow do you fancy Gloria love?"

"Oy mum! OI don think yer givin Juliana a fair go."

She clamped her hand down on his beak, "No more yarn outta you."

"Gloria," Glum Heart said the name aloud, "I like it I think that will be my name from now on." Gloria stood up, "So, now what, I have a new name, maybe Jolly Heart, my older brother, could try to cheer me up then?"

"Roit o! Here, OI got a joke fo' ya. Woi don' skeletons play music in church?"

"Umm, I don't know," Gloria said, confused.

He grinned, "Cause they got no organs!" he told her excitedly.

Gloria smiled and snickered a little, "All right, that's a little funny. So how are things going back in your home?" she asked.

"All roit. We're almost done with the rebuildin. Course it would be a lot easier if a certain monkey cousin an yellow bear would stop stealin our supplies to make a 'secret clubhouse.'" Jolly looked at the position of the sun in the sky and realized the tide would be coming in soon. "Saaaay," he turned to her once more, "you don know 'ow ta surf by chance do ya?"

"Well no I don't," Gloria admitted, "I've been mostly just staying in the shelter and helping out mom."

Jolly looked at his mother flabbergasted, beak hanging open with no sound coming out. She smirked and shook her head, "Here we go."

"Mum! How hard is it to get her some togs an a board, drag 'er down to the beach, toss 'er in the waves, an teach 'er how to surf?"

"OI figured you'd want to love. After all, you are the best roit?"

He regained his composure, "Roit you are ye old cheese!" Turning to Gloria he grabbed her hand, "Come on. OI'm gonna teach you the sport of kings!" Gloria let herself be dragged along, it would be the first real fun she'd had since coming here, and she was looking forwards to it.

Back up in the Kingdom of Caring, the final repairs were being done on the Hall Of Hearts. Grumpy, Birthday, Valiant, and Anger Heart were on the roof hammering boards into place. Grumpy paused to wipe the sweat from his bow, "I don't remember it being this hot out an hour ago."

"Well we've been working hard, what did you expect?" Anger Heart shot at Grumpy.

"I'll be glad when we're done up here maybe we can go for a swim and get something to drink," Valiant said.

"I'll second that notion." Birthday said.

Grumpy however scowled at Anger Heart, "How would you know what working hard is? You do more complaining then hammering."

"Look who's talking grumbler!" Anger Heart shouted back.

"All right, break it up up there!" Tenderheart's voice came from down on the ground, having come to check on their progress, "If you're done up there then come down you four."

Grumpy hammered his final board into place. "I'm done." Birthday got up to follow him, holding the ladder as Grumpy climbed down it.

Anger Heart followed after them as did Valiant Heart, the wolverine was too tried from the day's work to bother with his usual fancy way of getting around.

"So how's everyone else doing?" Anger Heart asked Tenderheart.

"Most of them are done, just a few more houses to touch up, though Bright Heart says he still has a lot of stuff of his he has to replace," Tenderheart said, consulting his clipboard, "With any luck we'll be up for caring missions again by tomorrow."

Grumpy twirled a finger in the air, "Whoopee, what a relief."

Birthday shoved him, "Oh Grumpy, you know you would rather be helping kids then building things."

"Why are you in such a rush to get back to work, Tenderheart?" Noble Heart said, coming up from behind him and wearing carpenter's overalls, "After everything we've been through we deserve a vacation, maybe we should go down to see Jolly and Glum Heart, see how she's doing and go to the beach while we're there."

"Australia was fun the first time around. And who doesn't like the beach?" Birthday agreed.

"Oh I can think of someone." Swift Heart came up behind them, depositing the paint cans she had been using to paint some of the houses. "Jolly went to see his opposite huh?" she had come in on the tail end of the conversation.

"That he did," Noble Heart said, "He finished all his work so I didn't see the harm in letting him go."

"Besides, we're all done here as far as I can see," Anger Heart said, "I'm going home to shower and change if we're going to the beach. If you don't want to go maybe you should just stay behind Swift Heart."

Grumpy bristled at the foxes tone but Swift Heart brushed it off, "Oh gee Anger Heart, now that I've got your permission to stay behind I think I will." She grabbed Grumpy's paw, "Come on. I'm sure we can find a much cooler way to cool off." Grumpy smirked back at Tender Heart, "Go with them man. You need to have some fun and stop thinking about work."

"But-" Tenderheart tried to protest but Valiant Heart grabbed his arm.

"Take his advice, let those two go make out or whatever it is they're going to be up to. Let them have the Kingdom of Caring to themselves while we chill on the beach. Maybe now that my spasms are gone I can learn to surf properly." Valiant dragged Tenderheart away, the deputy leader protesting all the way.

Swift Heart snickered, her ears picking up on Valiant's last comment. "Why do people think all we do is make out?"

Grumpy shrugged, "Beats me? So what are we going to do?" She thought for a moment. "We could go check on Fauna and Renegade and make sure they haven't killed each other secretly."

"Sounds good to me. We can do that," He wiggled his brows, "After we make out."

"Well if you're going to twist my arm..." Pressing her up against the nearest house, Grumpy kissed her.

Renegade Whitewolf was charging through the newly replanted Forest of Feelings in his white wolf form, enjoying having the freedom to do this now that work was done and he had nothing else to do.

"You better watch where you're going Ren. If you tear up any of Proud Heart's new flower beds even I won't be able to keep her from teaching you a lesson." Fauna commented from her perch in one of the trees that had been left standing.

Renegade stopped running and sat on his haunches, "I know I know, you told me to stay away from her stuff, especially her son and flower beds," he said, "So now what do we do? Looks like all of the repairs are done for now."

"I could use a swim. It's getting sorta toasty out here." Jumping to the ground she motioned for him to follow her to the Rainbow River.

"If you insist," Renegade said following after her, "I need to practice turning into water animals anyway."

"Believe me, I insist. When was the last time you had a bath? You reek?" She waved her hand dramatically in front of her nose.

"You're one to talk sis," Renegade said, taking off ahead of her to the rainbow river's edge.

"I smell just fine thank you!" Spinning so her back was facing the water, she lifted her arms above her head and dove backwards, hitting the water in a spray of color. A minute later she breached the surface as a dolphin.

Hunter dove into the water, shifting into an otter as he hit the water, spinning around under the water before coming up to float on the surface on his back, "Ahh, now this is the life," he said.

"Much better then helping a hooded robe wearing psycho rid the world of caring right?" Fauna floated next to him as an alligator.

Renegade sighed, "Never gonna let me forget that, are you sis?"

She splashed water over him with her tail, "Nope! Not for a good long while. Call it even for tackling me when you first saw me." Her eye looked up and saw a cloudmobile soaring over head. "Looks like we have company."

"Oh yeah, who do you suppose that is?" he asked.

Submerging once more she swam to the shore and hopped out as a sea lion. Seeing Swift Heart and Grumpy in the cloudmobile she clapped her flippers together and barked. "Only my two favorite care bears in the known universe. What's up guys? Finish making out early today?"

Fauna teased them. "Seriously? we do other things too!" Swift Heart shouted at her before waving to Renegade in the water.

"Hi Swift Heart," Renegade climbed out of the water and shifted to his human form, "So what brings you guys here, apart from this being where you live."

"Figured we'd check on you and see what's up. A bunch of the others went to the beach so there wasn't much else to do." Grumpy told him.

"The beach hmm," Renegade said, "I think I might join them, you up for that sis?" he asked Fauna.

She shook her head, "Nope I'm happy up here. I'm probably going to be heading home soon, Blue was thinking he'd be done early today. And Red Snout wanted to try and get a game of tackle down going."

"Ok, I'll see you at home Fauna, I want to go and check up on Glum Heart anyway," Renegade said, shifting into a hawk and taking off to go meet up with those who were going down to Earth.

Fauna watched him fly out of sight, "I'm still not totally used to having a 'little brother'." Turning into a human she sat on the ground cross legged.

"So, Fauna, how's he doing in Pegasus Falls?" Grumpy asked, "Any problems?"

"Some of the others still aren't too sure of him, Red Snout mostly. He thinks he'll snap at any moment and tell No Heart how to find us. But he's always been a little paranoid. The other white wolves are getting on with him though, Frosty saw to that." She ran a hand through her hair, "He still has moments though when he doesn't seem quite...right I guess."

"Well I hope that doesn't make him go crazy then, that's the last thing we need after all this," Grumpy grumbled.

"I'm doing the best I can and trying to get him to make friends, he's just very clingy."

"He probably still feels bad for when he had to trick you or for how he acted before or something. Just be patient." Swift Heart told her.

Fauna laughed, "Ha! Patience advice from you is like Tender Heart telling me how to loosen up."

Word spread fast in the KOC of the impending beach trip and those who wanted to go, pretty much everyone other than Swift Heart and Grumpy, began to prepare for the trip, grabbing their swim suits and other such things.

Bright Heart was helping Gentle Heart pack, the lamb seemed less than enthusiastic about going and Bright Heart took notice of this.

"Gentle Heart, you seem nervous, are you all right," Bright Heart said, putting his arm over her shoulder.

"Well it's just that, you know," she placed a hand on her ample chest, "I can handle being up here with you or the girls but down there. I can't wear any one piece swim suits and I still don't like the attention I get from humans down there at times."

"Don't worry, I'll be there, and like the other said not everyone will notice and we'll be there to help you," he kissed her on the cheek.

Gentle Heart smiled and kissed him back, "Thank you, Bright Heart," she packed the last of her beach gear and the two of them left her house.

Cozy Heart was watching the other cousins loading up their cloud mobiles while waiting for Jolly Heart to pick up his phone. She felt it was only fair to give him fair warning they were coming to invade. She laughed as she watched Trust Heart pound on an over turned bucket with a plastic shovel.

"G'day Sheila. To wha' do OI owe the pleasure of this call?"

Cozy Heart snapped her attention back to her phone, "Hey Jolly. Jussst thought I'd let you know we are headed your way for sssome beach time."

She smiled as she heard his voice get even happier, "Good on ya love. That sounds loike a roit good oidea. Me an Glum are already hittin the surf, an she's doin ol' roit for a firs' toimer. See ya soon love, OI gotta dash a big sets comin in. Ta!" He hurriedly hung up on her.

Stashing her phone, Cozy continued to pack her cloud mobile, making sure to tie her board onto the trunk. Etienne was whistling a happy tune as put his bag in Cozy Hearts car. Already he had ditched his shirt and was walking around in flip flops and swim trunks.

"You ssssure sssseem ready to go Illusssion."

He flashed her a toothy grin, "Oui petite. I'm very excited fo' dis trip. Sun, sand, and water," he gave a happy sigh, "What more could a gator need."

Noble Heart looked around at everyone taking a headcount, not bothering to ask where Grumpy and Swift Heart were, he knew she hated the water. He called out, "All right, everyone here who's going to the beach?" he asked.

The reply was enthusiastic as everyone was ready, "All right then, let's get going!" he shouted, helping True Heart who was already in the stretchy swimsuit she had to wear over her now even larger belly, into the cloud car before hopping in and taking off, followed by the others. Renegade was flying under his own power in his hawk form along with them, enthusiastic to go to the beach and that none of the Care Bears seemed to have much of an issue with his presence.

Playful Heart was weaving his cloud mobile over and under all the others, causing some of them to turn abruptly or slam on the breaks. "You guys drive like a bunch of old ladies." He called from the top of the loop-de-loop he was executing."

Tenderheart was about to shout at Playful for being so reckless when Playful flew by again and Funshine, who was in the passenger seat, dropped a full water balloon she had loaded back at home on Tenderheart's head. Playful accelerated out of the range of Tenderheart's shouts.

"There, that should help him cool off," Funshine giggled.

Jolly peered over his shoulder and saw the wave beginning to crest behind him. He turned to Gloria on his right, "All roit love. Jus paddle harder than last toime an you should catch this one." She nodded and began to paddle along with Jolly. Feeling the wave push them higher into the air, they both stopped and began to stand on their boards.

Gloria grinned in her moment of triumph, "I got it-whoa!" Unfortunately she lost her balance and dove into the wave.

Jolly dropped in with a "Cowabunga!" And turned sharply, surfing along the wave. While his time with his new family had been great, he never felt so at home as he did when riding a wave. Closing his eyes briefly he inhaled, breathing in the surf. Riding out of the barrel he straddled his board and looked for Gloria.

She had recovered from her fall and was watching the fleet of cloud mobiles flying over head and landing on the beach. Jolly grinned and waved at the shore, "Spot on mates! The waves are jus gettin roipe!"

Gloria swam back to the shore, "That was fun!" she said, smiling, "I guess I'm going to get a lot more practice in the near future."

Jolly was paddling in right behind her, "Yea you will. Best place ti practice is here in the Oz. Mum'll be more'n 'appy ta let ya practice all ye want."

"You adjusting all right down here, Glum Heart?" Renegade said, shifting to human form as he landed.

"Yes but, actually I took your advice and changed my name," the female platypus said, "You can call me Gloria now. I'll be staying down here to help Julian's mom at the shelter. I'll join the rest of the Care Bear Family when I feel I'm ready."

"Hey Jolly Heart, how are things going down here?" Valiant Heart called, pulling off his shirt, already wearing his trunks as he stuffed his shirt into his beach bag.

"Goin good mate." Jolly went to help Cozy Heart unload her cloud mobile, " 'ello love." She blushed as their beaks met in a quick kiss.

"Jus so you know I take full responsibility for dis." Etienne told them while setting up his beach chair. "Homme wanted to tell you how he felt on Valentines Day, but I tol' him non. A femme as belle as you Cozy deserved a day jus fo' herself."

"Oy! Are yer trunks on too toit ya bloke. Who was it that got the snow machine?"

Cozy laughed, "Now now boyssss, if you spend all day arguing we are going to miss all the wavesss." Cozy grabbed her board before calling to the others, "Lassst one in isss a rotten egg!"

"I'm no rotten egg!" Anger Heart shouted, charging in after them with Guidance Heart following him.

The others all charged in, some to stay and swim, some to surf, some just to get wet right away before they took off to do other things.

Illusion glanced over to Renegade, "So, first time at de beach homme? How you like it?"

Renegade had shifted back to his otter form and grinned over at Illusion Heart, "I love it. I wish Fauna had decided to come with us though, ah well her loss," Renegade dove underwater, spinning around as he did so.

Submerging, Illusion Heart swam slowly beneath the waves. Because he was an alligator, he could speak underwater, "You have plenty of chances to go to de beach wid her. Don sweat it. You gonna have to get used to comin second string to her beau."

"Yeah that's true," Renegade said, his otter form allowing him to speak underwater as well, "maybe I'll find a girl in Pegasus Falls too." he said, smiling before he went up for air and dove back under.

Proud Heart was in the shallows with Loyal Heart, both of them keeping their young son Trust Heart happy. Trust Heart was paddling around in the shallows, stopped by his parents when he went too far. Eventually he began to build a sand castle with his parents helping him.

True Heart and Noble Heart walked over so True Heart could sit in the shallows next to them. The female founder smiled at Trust Heart playing with his parents.

"He's very precious," she said, running a hand down her taut belly.

"Yes he is," Loyal Heart said.

"Yes, and we love him very much," Proud Heart smiled at True Heart, "And I hope he'll have some playmates soon too."

"Oof!" True Heart grunted as she felt her kids kick her from inside, "He will soon, the due date's only a couple weeks from now," she said.

Out in the water Cheer was on top of Champ's shoulders, trying to push Harmony off of Brave Hearts. "You are so going down Harmony."

She sneered at her, "So you say, but I think you'll be singing a different tune when the waves are ruining your do." Brave Heart kept a tight grip on Harmony's legs as she tried to unseat Cheer.

Gentle Heart had gotten out of the water, letting the sun dry her off a little. Bright Heart came up behind her, putting his arms around his girlfriend from behind and up onto her chest.

"Too wet for you?" he asked.

Gentle Heart blushed deeply, "Bright Heart, not here!" she said, a bit panicky, "and careful my top isn't that secure when I'm wet!"

Bright Heart let her go and took her hand, "All right, let's go and sunbathe then, it'll be nice and relaxing," he pulled her over to where they could set up their towels.

Cozy Heart was lying on her back on her board, smiling as the sun beat down on her. The big waves had stopped for the moment so she and Jolly were taking a break. Her platypus boyfriend was floating on his board nearby, holding Cozy's flipper in his hand.

"Thisss wasss jussst what I needed. It'sss no ski resort but itsss cooler then back home."

Jolly grinned, "Soon as the mountains open luv, you an I will hit the slopes. OI wanna give that snow boardin of yours a crack."

She glanced at him upside down, "Sssoundsss good to me."

Defiant Heart had opted to stay on the shore with Terra Heart. The blind mole was understandably nervous about swimming and on the loose sand she was having difficulty sensing what was going on around her.

"Want to try digging?" Defiant Heart asked.

"I thought about it," Terra Heart said, scooping up some sand in her digging claws, "but the sand is so loose and I can't really sense anything, not to mention I can't swim and I can't even try to feel anything when I'm in the water."

"Oh, OK, let's go farther up to the harder ground," Defiant Heart said, carefully leading her up.

Terra Heart sighed when she felt firmer ground under her feet, "Thank you Defiant Heart." She turned her blind eyes to the badger, "So why are you spending so much time with me?" she asked.

"Well someone has to show you around," Defiant Heart smiled, "plus, I kinda like you."

"You do?" Terra Heart asked, smiling. Because she was blind she was able to feel Defiant Heart's pulse while holding his hand and could feel how excited he was.

"Well, it's more than that," he admitted, "I have a crush on you, Terra Heart. You're kind and calm, and easy to get along with."

"You're sweet, Defiant Heart," she said, giving him a peck on the cheek, "and you're quite grounded even though you live up in the sky."

"Thanks, Terra Heart, want to take a walk around, I'll help you feel and hear some of the places in the city if you want," Defiant Heart suggested.

"I'd love to," the two new lovebirds strode off, hand in claw.

After a long day at the beach the group decided to go to one of the local restaurants Jolly recommended. The owners had known Jolly since he was a youngster and were more than happy to serve his new family.

Each of the couples sat together, sharing thoughts and comments from the day, each of them ordering some food they liked. When everyone was mostly quite, Noble Heart tapped his glass with his spoon and stood up out of his seat. Everyone turned to him and he smiled.

"Care Bears and Cousins," he began, "We've been through a lot in the past few weeks, we lost our home, were forced to fight opposites of ourselves who nearly destroyed us, and many of us were captured, but we've persevered, rebuilt, even made some new friends out of former enemies," he smiled over at Gloria and Renegade, "And soon we will be welcoming two new additions to our family. Good work everyone," he raised his glass, "let's all savor this moment."

"Yeah, before the next wacko comes along!" Playful Heart shouted.

Brave Heart hopped to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at Playful Heart, "You jinxed it! I can't believe you did that! Hear that everyone? If something happens it's Playfuls-"

He didn't get to finish as Harmony yanked him back down into his chair. "You need to chill boo, before you start riding some seriously negative vibes." Before he could respond she shoved a breadstick into his open maw.

This elected a laugh out of everyone. As they continued to eat and drink, Valiant whispered in Love-a-Lot's ear, "Too bad Swift Heart and Grumpy aren't here to hear this."

"Oh well, their loss hon," Love-a-Lot kissed him, "I'm sure they're enjoying themselves just fine."

As the group dined long into the night, they let themselves become completely wrapped up in the jovial atmosphere emitted by their family. For now their horizon was clear of danger and distress and they were going to enjoy that time as long as they could.


End file.
